


RetConning Carmilla: A Trans Story

by Cysteine



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Other, Trans Female Character, Trans Lesbian, Transgender, Transphobia, fifty flavors expanded universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-03-12 11:50:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cysteine/pseuds/Cysteine
Summary: What if Danny were a trans woman? Not necessarily G!P as I'm not writing this for the male gaze and I'm a trans author trying to convey a trans story in the framework of a Canon Carmilla storyline.Rating may change in later chapters.NOTE: Not part of the Fifty Flavors of Creampuff series, but I'm recycling a lot of the Summer Society ideas from there as part of the Fifty Flavors Expanded Universe (FFEU). #ForArtemis





	1. Accidental Heroine

**_Prologue_ **

The President of the Summer Society looked at the new pledge class with pride as she finished the Induction Ritual. She had dealt with only minimal pushback from some of the alumni members, but National had been quite adamant that it was self-identification as part of the Sisterhood that mattered, not the biological sex assigned at birth.

Which meant that her Second, Jamie Williams, has less standing to remain a member than Danny Lawrence.

Kirsten had decreed that the Silas chapter would lead the way in being radically inclusive, but within the three months of pledging, Danny had proven her place here while Jamie had actually mulled about leaving the Sisterhood.

“...we stand here between the Darkness and the Light as warriors of Artemis, the honored maiden huntress. As we go today, we are guided by our Creed-”

Every sister spoke up in one voice.

“To bind ourselves within a true and lasting Sisterhood.  
“To strive for the advancement of women in all the realms.  
“To protect all humankind from dangers seen and unforeseen.”

“By Artemis-”

_“ **By Artemis!** ” _

“So mote it be.”

Kirsten stepped down from the tree stump, her white doric chiton flapping in the slight breeze. The sleeves were embellished with silver and green as the Huntress (President) of the Sisterhood.

Jamie, the Second Huntress (Vice President) wore a similar doric chiton with red and gold as their colors of office. While Kirsten didn’t have her war paint on, Jamie’s face sported a red chevron going from the jawline up to peak between the eyebrows.

“Good Job, Kirsten.” Jamie said, pulling the bracer off of their left arm and unstringed their bow, nodded towards Melanippe Callis and Danny Lawrence. “Looks like both of our pledges made it through.”

Mel and Danny were sizing each other up as they had been highly competitive throughout the pledging process. Both had qualified in archery as Mel had a black inverted Chevron pointing down to the tip of her nose, giving her a hawkish demeanor while Danny’s war paint looked like black ichor dripping down her face.

“It was only two points difference, Mel-”

“An unfair advantage because you were born with broader shoulders!”

“I’ve proven myself, and I have as much right to be here as you do!”

Mel sneered at that. “So what? We gonna _demote_ my First to go be in Zeta Omega Mu now?”

Jamie frowned at the exchange, tired of the same arguments being repeated over and over. “Kirsten, I fulfilled my duties as Second Huntress. I hereby resign my position, and personally I recommend Jia to replace me.”

The pair of them looked over to Callis and Lawrence bickering as the eye-blacked Jia stepped between them, attempting to diffuse the situation.

“Callis, Lawrence _is your sister_.”

“It’s got a **dick**.” Mel spat indignantly.

“Enough!” Jia commanded, voice going deep and primal as their eyes glinted amber.

Kirsten arched an eyebrow to Jamie. “Williams, you want me to replace you with a genderqueer werewolf?”

“They deserve the spot, sister.”

Kirsten nodded in understanding. Jia had excelled in their first Adonis Festival and had the points from SummerSoc campus patrols. She also knew that Lawrence and Callis’ rivalry would only get worse as the pair of them would fight to be Huntress of the Silas chapter of SummerSoc.

* * *

  _**Two Years Later** _

Danny was told that being Professor Marston’s Literary analysis TA would be easy. That the office hours would be spend doing her own homework when she’s not reading papers.

It was only two weeks in and she had fielded over thirty questions about the midterm paper from an annoying over-achieving freshman named Laura Hollis.

 _If she weren’t so cute_ , Danny thought to herself, _I’d find it annoying._

Danny replied to Laura’s latest question via e-mail when a knock at the shared office got her attention. All of the TA’s in the Lit department shared the office, but Danny practically lived here as she didn’t feel comfortable living at the SummerSoc house.

“Hey Lawrence, can I come in?” Callis asked at the doorway.

“Yeah, just… answering some emails. What’s up?” The tension between the rivals was palpable, but there was something in Mel’s face that disarmed the redhead.

“Due to the reports of girls going missing, Huntress Roman is imposing a curfew on all SummerSoc members. Second Huntress Watts is putting together a search party because nobody has seen Elsie since last night.”

“She probably just hooked up with some dude at a kegger.”

“That’s what I thought too, but apparently she doesn’t swing that way. Levi and Chloe are investigating her last known location while Jessie and Sam are scrying the campus.”

Danny frowned at that. “So what are you doing here?”

“Cera ordered us to pair up at all times; Becca sent me here to bring you back home.” It was obvious that she wasn’t happy with the arrangement.

Danny frowned as she looked back to her screen. “Well I’m still having office hours right now-”

Kirsch poked his head into the office.

“Ginger hottie, I had a question about the Beo-Bad-Guy…”

Mel stared at the Zeta before giving Danny a knowing look. “I’ll be outside, Lawrence.”

* * *

Danny was standing as part of a phalanx around Roman and Watts at the Dean’s Town Hall. Though they had been ordered to ignore the taunts from the Zetas, it was mildly aggravating to hear the cat calls until Dean Morgan began speaking.

“It has come to the attention of the University that a certain individual or individuals are circulating rumors about students disappearing.  Rest assured, if these disturbances do not cease, the perpetrators will be dealt with.”  

The Summers exchanged confused glances with each other, asking about their sister Elsie.

Danny broke formation as she spoke up.

“With all due respect, Dean Morgan, you shouldn’t be calling a missing persons report a rumor when one of our own Summer Society members went missing at a rush party.”

The crowd of students began to speak up about other girls have gone missing, turning into a cacophony of worry and theories about where they could be.

 _“Lawrence, fall in.”_ Watts ordered quietly, doing a cursory threat assessment of the crowd.

The Dean seemed to nod towards the Zeta Vice-President as his voice seemed to boom over the noise.

“The obstreperous brothers of Zeta Omega Mu have decided that it is uncool that hotties might feel unsafe going to parties or making their walks of shame at 4 AM, and as so have decided to personally protect any co-ed 7.5 or higher.”

Huntress Roman fumed at that. “We should be reinstating our night marches!”

The Phalanx of Summers cheered in reply, startling the crowd of Alchemists who were grouped in with the Glee Club.

The Zeta VP sneered at that, starting up a chant of “Pizza or Death!” that the rest of the fraternity joined in to drown out the Summers.

“Huntress! Incoming… herring?” Sam asked, dodging the salted herring that instead slammed Mel in the face.

 _“I draw the line at **fish** ,”_ Callis growled as she broke ranks, pummelling the first Zeta she could get her hands on.

The Alchemy Club formed a defensive perimeter as they lobbied some purple fungus into the fray as fist-fight skirmishes broke out between the Zetas and the Summer Society.

Danny saw her student (and person in question of making said videos) drop to the ground as something struck her cheek and was immediately by her side, using her body as a human shield to ensure Laura didn’t get pelted with anything.

“Hey, let’s get you out of here.” Danny said, wincing as chunks of salted herring broke apart in the back of her head.

“Danny! Hey!” Laura’s eyes were big and round as if the words ‘My Hero!’ were written on her forehead.

As Danny escorted Laura back to her dorm room, she knew that this would be a crush that would definitely turn into trouble.


	2. Sisterhood

Danny passed the threshold of the Summer Society property and felt the familiar wash of Jesse’s magic as the wards let her pass. Sam was lounging in a hammock chair hanging from a nearby tree and called her over.

“Well, you’re  _ finally  _ back. Where’s your buddy, Lawrence?” Sam cajoled as she sharpened arrowheads on a whetstone.

“Probably digging Zeta brains out from under her fingernails.” Danny replied with a shrug.

“Nobody is supposed to be alone out there, you know. Roman’s orders.” Sam replied, tossing her a straight razor. “Help a sister out, Sweeney Todd?” She asked, pointing to her side cut. 

Danny nodded in agreement as the pair of them went inside together. Sam laid out the tarp for at-home hair dyes while Danny checked the sharpness of the straight razor. 

Once in position, Danny applied the shaving cream and started to do the long, careful strokes along the side of her sister’s skull. 

“Sam, I’m pretty certain Callis hopes something happens to me-”

“-and ruin her chances at being President? Why do you think Watts paired you two up?”

“To punish us? I don’t know.”

“She needs you two to get over your cold war and do what’s best for the Sisterhood. Or Mutually Assured Destruction. One of you gets hurt, the other is in trouble.”

“Well she started it.” Danny said, hearing the petulance in her voice.

“Yeah, she did. You running off mid-fight with the Zeta’s isn’t doing you any favors either.”

“I um, escorted a girl back to her dorm.”

Sam put down the arrowhead and looked at the tall ginger. “Oh did you? Who’s the latest Roseline, Romeo?”

“Uh, want me to french braid the hairline for you?”

“Sure, Chloe’s gonna come in and do a henna design as well, but you’re changing the subject.”

“Laura Hollis. You know, the one with the videos about her missing roommate?”

“You’re falling for a freshman, Lawrence?” Sam chuckled, turning her head slightly.

“Hey, don’t move. I’m still shaving here.”

“Oh, you got it bad for this one.”

“Well I’m not going to do anything about it.”

“Why not?”

“She doesn’t know.” Danny doesn’t have to add the words ‘ _ that I’m trans’. _ Danny puts down the straight razor and wipes down Sam’s head with a towel before parting her hair and starting the narrow braid.

“Well did you date, you know, before?” Sam wasn’t certain how to phrase it.

“Tried. Failed. She was straight. Coming out to her pretty much ended our relationship.”

“And since then?”

“Nope. There’s been girls I liked, but…” Danny shrugged at that. “You know what the lesbian community can be like. Haven’t really dated for the past 4 years.”

“Well, you’re pretty damn tall… maybe she knows and doesn’t want to make it awkward?”

Danny smiled sadly at that, pausing the braid. She knew Sam meant well by that, but she couldn’t get over her own insecurities about disclosing… if they were even at that point.

“Well, if she knew and then told me she knew, it wouldn’t be as awkward. I just don’t know how or when I should bring it up; do I mention it up front, tattoo it on my forehead that I’m the token tranny of SummerSoc? Or during the first date? Before we kiss?”

Sam frowned at the use of the t-slur, knowing that Danny was just putting on a facade to cover up a long-seated insecurity.

“Well, I’d guess at least before the clothes come off, but that also means you have to actually ask her out in the first place. Anyways, you’re a warrior of Artemis; so buck up and go do it!”

Levi came down the stairs and called out to Danny.

“Roman wants to see you.”

* * *

Danny thought she was going to be in trouble as she was facing the entire leadership of the Summer Society in the Huntress’ office. Watts closed the door behind her and pointed to the empty chair for her to sit in. 

Cera Roman turned her laptop around and on it was the most video that Laura posted.

“So that’s where you’ve been? Working with this freshman right under the Dean’s nose?”

“Uh, I can-”

“Good job on being proactive on finding Elsie. We thought it was an isolated thing, but Betty’s disappearance makes me thing something else is going on.” The Summer Society President said, making Danny feel relieved.

Becca Watts turned towards Danny. “We want you to keep working with her; get to the bottom of this.”

Danny nodded at this, glad to see the support from the other officers. 

“Okay, but… what about Mel?”

“Well seeing as you two really can’t seem to work together to remember what sisterhood is about, despite what we tried-”

“I didn’t forget, Huntress. Callis is the one spouting gynocentrism and still trying to claim I don’t deserve to be here.”

“And she has as much right to be here as you do.” 

“If only she agreed to that sentiment.” Danny muttered petulantly.

“Yeah, I know. She’s also a Legacy, so just do your best to coexist.” Watts replied, dismissing her.

Danny was at the door when Cera stopped her.

“One more thing; this Laura… Holland? If she’s pissing off the Dean, then she’s probably also in the crosshairs of The Board. As of now, consider it your job to protect her.”

* * *

Danny was doing her best to focus on the facts of the case before her, and not the moon eyes Laura shot at her, nor the copious eye-rolling from the squatter.

“Okay, so that’s the main outline of details, ready to do this for the video, Danny?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, just reviewing the facts.”

Carmilla lifted her head out of her book momentarily. “And I’ll stay over on my side of the room, making no noise, and pretending I'm not here.”

Laura scoffed at that. “Nobody asked you, Harriet Potter.” She turned to hover over the laptop. “Starting in three, two, one… I can barely believe this.  I mean, when I put the videos up, I thought there might be _ a few of you _ who had seen the weird and wanted to help, but the fact that there are so many of you, I mean … I’m overwhelmed.   **We’re gonna figure this out** .  And, of course, when I say we I mean,” Laura shifts to her left to reveal Danny and the large pad on the easel, ”Danny and I!”  

Danny turns and smiles to the laptop as they had planned out forehand.

Laura takes the moment to sit down, being careful to keep the tall redhead in the frame.

“We have been working nonstop and, not that we’re geniuses or anything, but I think we’re really close to a breakthrough.” Laura’s positive attitude seemed to permeate the air, and Danny had to fight the urge to blush and instead played it cool.

“Oh, no, I totally think we’re geniuses.” Danny replies, eyes tracking the raven-haired roommate at the mini fridge. Carmilla’s gagging sounds aren’t fooling anybody.   


“Oh, sorry, I just got really nauseous all of a sudden.”

Danny, having dealt with much worse passive-aggressiveness from Mel, refused to let this bother her and played naive.

“Oh, that’s too bad.  Maybe you should lay down.” Laura laughs, which makes the corner of Danny’s lip curl slightly as Carmilla goes to sit back down on the bed after throwing a rude gesture.

Danny sits next to Laura, leaning in to whisper while not paying attention to how damn good her student smells.

“So, she’s kind of intense.”

Laura whispers right back to her.

“Yeah, you have no idea. But we’re not here to get hung up on my  _ jerkface  _ roommate.”

Danny almost smiles as she sees how Laura looks up at her, and immediately shrugs it off.

“You’re totally right!” Danny gets back up, needing the space as she goes back to the easel.

“Okay…” Laura prompts, reminding Danny to go back to the bullet-points they made for this video.

Danny picks up the cue easily, burning off the sexual tension by tapping the marker in her hand against the crime board. “Okay.  So, as far as we know, we have  **_four_ ** missing girls.  All have disappeared at parties.  Two have reappeared. And both with no memory of what happened.”

“Exactly.  But all the disappearances aren’t all the same, either; Sarah Jane and Natalie were having those super-creepy dreams and we don’t know if Betty or…”

“Elsie.”

“-Elsie were having them, and nobody else got a weird card or an elbow full of proto-shiitake goop.”

Danny laughed at the visual. 

“Yeah, I wish I’d gotten to see that.”   


“You really don’t, actually.  So, can we think of anything else that the girls or the parties have in common?” Laura asks, getting up.

Danny looks at the board. “Okay, I don’t see anything. They have different interests, different classes, so-” She smells before seeing Laura beside her, and notices from the corner of her vision that the webcam is still on.

“Oh, I was thinking of making a montage out of this part, so just ignore the camera.”

“Seems kinda weird to try scripting this video when the last one was so spontaneous.”

“Just go with it for me, please?” Laura’s pleading eyes strangely aroused Danny, who snapped back into work mode as cross referencing the last known locations of the four missing girls might help alleviate the erection forming in her jeans.

Danny knew she was here to help her Sisters find Elsie as well as to protect Laura... but she wasn’t able to focus and sat on Laura’s bed as she kept going, driven to find some shred of evidence to link the four girls together.

Laura found something that linked two of the four, which made Danny stand in surprise and go over the rest of the details on the crime board in hopes to link it to Betty. Laura was cross referencing her notes at her desk, until she ruled out that possibility to their chagrin.

Again, Danny found herself standing over Laura and having the dishwater blonde looking up at her and she turned away, forcing herself to not focus on Laura and went back to the easel, certain that with enough focus they could find something.

“It’s almost like we need more info here… anything else you can get from Summer Society?”

“I asked all of the Sisters; we don’t have much else to go on.” Danny threw herself to lie down on Laura’s bed, looking up at the ceiling and wondered if the Alchemy Club was missing any female students. She sat up when she decided that she may have to pay them a visit.

_Goddess, I hate those damn weirdos_. Danny thought, head in her hands.

Even Laura’s head was on the desk in frustration, while Carmilla pointedly ignored the pair and kept reading.

“I think my brain has melted.”

Danny sighed at that, looking over at her crush.

“It’s okay.  We’ll get you some carbs, some caffeine, you know, come at it fresh-”

Laura panics at that, running to the mini-fridge. 

“Ooooh!  Oh my gosh, I am a terrible host!  I haven’t even offered you anything to drink or a snack.  Would you like a snack?  I … I have … peanut butter, grape soda, snack cakes…”

Danny chuckles at a flustered Laura, wondering how someone this tiny can be this adorable.

“Oh my god. How are you even alive right now? You know all that stuff is filled with polysyllabic chemicals-”

“-I know, but it’s also really delicious.  And chocolate is comforting in the face of epic failure.”

Danny’s heart almost broke at that.

“It’s not epic failure!”

“We have been at this for ages and there is just nothing.”

Danny had been only looking at the extra-curricular activities and found nothing, so she went back to the original idea: the point of when they were first missing.

“Not nothing.  Okay, look at this.  Okay, all four girls go missing at parties, right?  The undersea swim team party, the Summer Society rush party, the north quad mixer, the psychology wine and cheese…”

She knew it would go nowhere, but it was better than wallowing in despair.

“All different events, planned by different groups-”

“Yeah, but look at the party gear! Okay, at the … uh, at the swim team party, small drink cauldron of fizzy dagons. At the wine and cheese, a three-foot volcanic replica with melted brie. At the Summer Society, bioluminescent candy bugs.  And at the north quad mixer…" 

“-Party fog-”

Danny nods at that. “All provided courtesy of…”

“The Alchemy Department.” Laura and Danny finally notice the singing from outside the dorm. “Wow, the glee club is really giving it their all, huh?”

Danny gave an awkward smile as “ask the alchemists” turned into “suspect the alchemists” in her head.

“So, you think someone from the Alchemy Department is taking girls?”

The look on her face left Danny with no choice.

“It’s thin, but it’s a start …  _ Watson. _ ”

Laura smiles at that, making Danny’s heart leap in her chest. Of course, Carmilla takes this moment to interject as if she’s jealous of not getting any attention.

“Have you even seen those lab rats you’re accusing? Most of them couldn’t carry off a Twizzler.”

Laura frowed slightly at that. 

“She’s right. Maybe we should talk to Sarah Jane and Natalie again, see if anything jogs their memory.”

Carmilla scoffed at that. 

“Oh, great, another visit from Miss Madness and Terror. That’ll be a blast.”

Laura huffed as she paused the recording and went to ask Perry if she could talk to the two girls again while Carm turned to face Danny.

“You’re her Lit TA. Pretty certain you’re not supposed to be flirting with one of your students.”

“You don’t look like someone who follows the rules. Why do you care?”

Carmilla turned her attention back to her book. “I don’t.”


	3. Compelling Creeds

Danny was surprised at how different Natalie was acting, the embarrassment of the situation making her stomach crawl as Nat seemed to want to  _table dance_  for her in the middle of Laura’s dorm room. Danny had always been shy with women, and never used to getting such forward attention like this; not to mention that it is happening right in front of Laura.

Pick up a bow and hunt a wild boar, known for charging and willing to kill people? That Danny could do. But deal with a girl hunting her?

Not so much.

Which is how Danny found herself almost power-walking across campus to the south end where the Alchemist’s Chantry  _(who even uses the word chantry?)_  was located.

Before she could knock on the front door, it opened with a slow and eerie creak. Danny wondered if someone were behind the door, as she tried to peek through the gap.

“Danielle Lawrence, of the Summer Society, state your business.” A disembodied voice called out.

“I’m, uh, asking for help to solve the disappearing girls on campus.”

“Please come in and an Adept will see to you in the waiting room upstairs.”

Danny went through the doorway, as the sensation of cold tendrils washed over her. If it was a ward, it felt alien to her. The next thing she sensed was the lack of anyone in the chantry.

“How do I get there?”

“Please come in and an Adept will see to you in the waiting room upstairs.”

When she took two more steps in, the door closed by itself and a stairway appeared in the middle of the now-wider hallway. She jumped out of her skin at that, eyes darting around and seeing nobody there.

Rather than just go up the stairs (like in  _every_ slasher film she’s seen) Danny decided to take the doorway to a hall on the left.

“Is anyone here? The Summer Society wants to know why your group donated to every social event where a girl was kidnapped.”

“Please come in and an Adept will see to you in the waiting room upstairs.”

_Yeah, but… fuck, this is some sort of automated message, isn’t it?_

Danny took another left, and another left, and went down the length of a hallway that seemed too long as her third left turn should have put her crossing past the front door. The floor wasn’t on a slope or an incline, so there was definitely something weird going on.

“Hey Alchemist Chantry? I think I got lost.”

A moment later Danny found herself back at the entrance, the stairwell appearing right in front of her.

This time she took a turn down the hall on the right, and then turned left and right again. She found herself back at the front door with the stairway patiently waiting for her.

“So much for exploring,” Danny huffed as she took the clue and made her way upstairs. There were various doors in the hallway, and only one opened at the far end. “I guess that’s the invitation.”

She passed by a billboard with various notes pinned on it, but every time she tried to read the words, her eyes unfocused and it became blurry.

Danny gave up trying to read the board and entered the waiting room, which was actually a cozy library with ancient tomes from floor to ceiling, opulent chaise lounges, and a fireplace that burned with green fire.

An end-table that served as a bar cart had various amber liquids in a range of different decanters, as well as a pot that had strange purple mushrooms growing from the soil.

Danny already knew that the Alchemists had some strange fascination with mushrooms and fungi, so she paid it little attention and went to read the titles on the nearby wall. Again, her eyes seemed unable to focus on the text.

“Why would they sort books by their color?”

The disembodied voice came from the potted mushrooms on the drink cart, sounding different from before.

“Oh hey Danny! I’m almost there; feel free to pour yourself a drink and relax.”

The voice sounded familiar as she looked for a speaker hiding under the pot or amidst the purple mushrooms.

“Um, what exactly is in the decanters?” She asked, picking up an empty glass and watching three ice cubes materialize in it. Danny slowly put the glass down and the ice disappeared.

“Whatever you want it to be; just think carefully of a drink before you pick it up. And don’t change your mind until after you’ve finished pouring.”

Danny arched an eyebrow at that, thought to herself “Vodka Sprite” as she lifted the decanter and the amber liquid turned clear and fizzy. Once she poured and recapped it on the cart, it returned to its amber color.

“Okay, that’s kind of awesome.”

“You didn’t ask for anything like earwax or grass clippings, right?” the voice asked, huffing in exertion as if they are running outside.

“No, why would  _anyone…_  nevermind.” Danny muttered, lifting the glass to her lips and watching the ice re-appear. Her drink was exactly what she expected as the front door opened and slammed shut, followed by heavy footfalls coming up the stairs.

“Danny, I’m Alan. Pleased to meet you.” Alan called out from down the upstairs hallway. “Forgive me for being late, but we’ve been busy collecting dander across campus. Big experiment.”

Alan made his way into the waiting room and poured himself a strange concoction that looked yellow before he paused, then resumed pouring a fizzy amber color before he paused yet again and the decanter turned red. He looked at her glass and guessed her beverage. “Gin and Tonic?”

Danny shook her head, giving a wary eye to his drink. “Vodka Sprite. What is this?”

“Polysapor. It can become whatever flavor you can imagine as you pour it.”

“So why did yours change color?”

“Three different flavors mixed together: eighty-five percent lemon lime gatorade, thirteen percent energy drink, two percent cherry flavoring.” Alan offered his glass to her. “Wanna try a sip?”

“No thanks,” Danny said, sitting down on the chaise lounge. “The Summer Society-”

“-you mean you and Laura-” Alan corrected, and Danny hesitated at that.

“Well, yeah, all of us are looking into the disappearances-”

“-and you suspect us.” Alan took a long sip as Danny picked up on the tension there. “How can we help and clear our name, since  _obviously_  nerds are unable to have girlfriends and we must resort to  _kidnapping._ ”

“Well, we noticed that the Alchemy Club-”

“Save it. We’ve seen Laura’s videos. Our chapter’s Hohenheim has been pushing to get us on the same level of prestige as  **you lot** ,” Alan huffed in exasperation, “...and the Zetas. So no, the Alchemy Club isn’t about to throw all of our good will away by kidnapping anyone.”

“Didn’t you guys press-gang test subjects in the cafeteria?”

Alan grimaced at that. “That was last year; we’ve grown as Alchemists since then.”

“Okay,  _Alchemy isn’t real_.” Danny replied tersely. She knew it was a mistake to come here.

Alan scoffed at that, as if he’s heard it way too many times. “First of all, we aren’t cosplayers who watched too much  _Fullmetal Alchemist_  anime. Secondly, the only difference between Plubnum and Aurum is essentially a Lithium atom. Three protons, neutrons, and electrons.

“Theoretically, if we were able to use a particle accelerator to smash off just a bit of the Lead atom, we’d have a gold atom. Or do fusion between Yttrium, Zirconium, or Niobium. They are all transition metals anyways.

“Science isn't about why; it's about why not. It’s about seeking knowledge and expanding our understanding of the multiverse.”

“...don’t you mean universe?”

“No, I don’t. Our maxim here is ‘ _Be Thou For The People_ ’; our goal is to help humanity overall. Don’t you lot have a similar creed?”

 _To bind ourselves within a true and lasting Sisterhood._  
_To strive for the advancement of women in all the realms._  
_To protect all humankind from dangers seen and unforeseen._ _  
By Artemis!_

“Yeah, we do. So why did your club donate gifts to all of these parties? It wasn’t just for the prestige, was it?”

Alan frowned and deliberated something.

“We, uh… needed an excuse to be welcomed there. It’s the only way we could get invited.”

Danny understood what it was like to feel isolated and disenfranchised, taking a long sip as she tried to figure out what to say next.

“See that Talking Purple Mushroom that we spoke through? It was the beta test for a communications array. A nature-powered network that will make the blue tentacle phones obsolete.”

Danny frowned as she looked at the potted fungi. “Why not just use cell phones?”

“Eventually this would also piggyback wi-fi signals and replace wire-based electricity. No more strip mining for copper, which dovetails into the ‘Keep it in the Ground’ movement.”

“That’s… actually impressive.”

Alan nodded at that. “Yeah, and in order to root the fungi in various areas, we need some of the local dander to typify the main hubs as the network grows.”

Danny shook her head slightly in confusion. “I’m sorry, dander?”

“Yeah, we bring back dander to the hubs and the fungal network rhizomes across campus.”

Danny was completely lost at the Mushroom Risotto network, but was distracted as he walked back into the hallway and whispered to the bulletin board she couldn’t read before.

“Here, we’ve kept our Dander collectors working in teams, always having one person photograph the location so we can record where each type of Dander came from. Maybe you can go through our recon photos and find your kidnapper there.”

Danny hustled out to follow him, eyes wide as she took in the images and notes on the board.

“This… will actually help. Can I borrow these?”

Alan handed her a thumb drive. “We already digitized the photos. Happy Hunting, Summers.”


	4. Occam's Dulled Razor

Danny enters the room, surprised at seeing Carmilla almost show emotion.

“Hey… guys.”

A stab of jealousy went into her as she felt the need to sit down at whatever turn of events has Laura seemingly warming up to her.

“I return from the Alchemy Department victorious.” Carmilla takes a breath to recompose herself, obviously not comfortable with Danny seeing this. Laura, however, has all eyes on the redhead.

“Wait, they are the ones behind it, taking the girls?”

“Oh, no, more like they’re the ones using dander collected at parties to seed an immense interconnected fungus throughout campus …”

“I’m sorry, what now?”

“Apparently it’s a communications experiment.  Or, maybe a really complicated risotto recipe?  I don’t know. That’s not the victory part,” She pulls out the USB drive from her pocket and hands it to Laura, “These creepy little proto-scientists have been photo-tracking every party on campus for their documentation.”

Laura plugs the USB into her laptop, eyes shining with excitement.

“We have pictures of every party where the girl has disappeared?”

“Yup!” She couldn’t help but beam at that, missing the concern flash over Carmilla’s face as she starts to grab something.

Laura, of course, was already clicking through the images with rapt attention.

“And we can track all the girls through all of them! Danny, you are brilliant!”

The trans woman’s heart pounded harder at that, giving her the courage to finally ask her out… _as soon as this case is solved._

“I like the sound of that-”

Carmilla cleared her throat to interrupt Danny.

“Sorry, I just forgot that I have to be _anywhere_ but here.” Carmilla leaves the room in a bit of a rush, making Danny roll her eyes at the passive-aggressiveness of it all.

Danny takes the moment (possibly fueled by Laura’s kindness towards Carmilla) to mock the grunge-girl’s departure with extreme sarcasm.

“Oh, that’s too bad.  No, come back!”

Laura, for some reason, frowned at the exchange.

“Don’t.”

_Don’t what? Be jealous? Petty?_

“What?  Why not?”

“She’s just had kind of a rough day is all.” Laura’s voice held a level of concern that, if Danny were honest with herself, would be an endearing quality.

_Except that this is her terrible roommate who doesn’t seem to care about anyone._

“Oh, no.  You are _entirely_ too sweet.”

Laura plays off the compliment, making Danny wonder if the blonde feels the same thing that she does.

“Yeah, yeah. Come on. We have… hundreds of photos to sort through. Well, that is going to be incredibly boring.”

The pair of them sort through photos, looking for creepy guys and if any drinks were being tampered with.

“Wait, Danny? See the red shirt?” Laura asks as she starts to jot down details.

“Think he was at all the events?” Danny asks, starting to look for him in other photos.

“Okay, I don’t see him at the Wine and Cheese event.”

“Maybe he had help and someone else nabbed a girl there?”

Laura huffed at that. “So it goes from ‘Where’s Waldo?’ to ‘Where’s Waldo and his Wacky Wingmen?’...  I’m not sure we can follow that as a lead yet. Better to just assume a single actor.”

“Well, Occam’s Razor would suggest it’s some Zeta with GH...”

Laura turned her big eyes to Danny, making the tall redhead fall silent.

“Is it sexist to assume only men would do that to get their dicks wet?”

Danny involuntarily licked her lips at the closeness to Laura’s, her dysphoria flaring up at the comment.

_Laura doesn’t know I’m trans._

The blond’s eyes narrow in confusion.

“Danny?” She breathed, eyes lingering on the redhead’s lips.

Danny closed her eyes to break the trance she seemed to be in, remembering the Huntress’ orders.

_Consider it your job to protect her._

“GHB doesn’t explain the change in personality though. Or why some came back and some didn’t.”

The tall redhead opened her eyes to a shuddering breath, and considered upping her testosterone blockers to see if that would help kill off her libido whenever she has to be this close to Laura.

_Focus, Lawrence!_

“Yeah, good point. Were all the kidnapped girls straight? Maybe if I wear my rainbow shirt it will keep the guys from trying to sell me on their dicks like they are the sham-wow dude.”

Danny clenched her jaw at that as the pair of them kept going through the images, making note of certain faces and locations but getting nowhere.

“Yeah, guys can be pretty bad at that.” Danny’s clipped tone was missed by Laura as she noticed something at a SummerSoc social.

“I know it’s kinda creepy to be looking at what amounts to surveillance of yourself, but I think this guy was checking you out.”

Danny recognized the guy as the upper-class Zeta that instigated the riot at the town hall. “Yeah, I don’t know him. He’s a Zeta, though.”

Laura’s face fell at that. “Darn. I thought you two could make a cute couple.”

Danny chortled at that, surprising the blonde next to her. “Yeah, uh… guys aren’t my type. Not since I used-” She stopped herself suddenly as Laura’s jaw had dropped at that.

“Since you used to what?” She smiled playfully.

“Um, I used to date them? I mean, uh… just realized I wasn’t into men.”

_Good job Lawrence. Totally believable._

Laura shrugged it off, clicking to the next photo. “I knew when I was 5 and dad asked if I wanted a Ken to play with my Barbie. I wanted her to have a wife and three puppies.”

The pair of them kept working late as Laura ate cupcakes and Danny made herself some Earl Grey Tea. It was when her alarm went off on her phone to take her evening dose of her HRT that she noticed Laura had fallen asleep on her desk.

Danny looked at the tired, tenacious, tiny gay and couldn’t help but smile. She was putting her heart and soul into this project to help find a roommate that she barely even knew, and to find out the truth about what’s going on the campus.

It was an endearing quality that made her love the girl all over again.

“You will never know.”

At the sound of Danny’s voice, Laura starts to talk in her sleep.

“No, I don’t… I see the goldfish…”

Danny laughs quietly at that.

“Hey, Laura. Laura. Laura, you’re dreaming..” She pokes the girl beside her playfully.

“Whaa! I’m awake!”

_Wait, is that my Sister talking to Laura’s dark and gloomy roommate?_

“Don’t bite my head off or anything. Okay, no, but I think I found something.”

“What? Where?”

“Okay, look: Elsie. The sister who’s missing? There she is at the party. And take a look at who’s with her.”

_What is Elvira doing with her?!_

“Holy crap. Carmilla.”

Danny turned to Laura. “Hey, uh… I gotta make a call.” She nodded her head towards the laptop.

Laura nodded in understanding and stopped the webcam. “Need me to leave the room?”

Danny shook her head at that. “Just don’t need this going public yet.” She borrowed Laura’s dorm phone and called the Summer Society House.

It took almost 4 rings before someone picked up.

“Summer Society House.” It was Levi, the only other redhead in the group other than her and Sam. Danny had gone skeet shooting with her before the semester and remembered how she was doing better with a pair of Ruger LC9’s than Danny was with the shotgun.

 _This girl is a bad-ass Lara Croft,_ Danny recalled as she spoke up.

“Levi, I need to talk to Watts.”

There was a lengthy silence on the other end.

“Um, Lawrence, you better come back to the house. Watts went hunting last night, and uh…”

“Shit. Full Moon.”

“She didn’t come back.”

Danny’s blood ran cold. _Carmilla left last night and hasn’t been back yet, either._

“Tell Huntress that I have lead; Laura’s new roommate Carmilla was the last person Elsie was seen with before she disappeared.”

“A girl is behind the disappearances?” Levi asked uncertainly.

“Knowing her, she’s just a pawn. A lazy, antisocial pawn-”

Laura interrupted her.

“-Danny, we don’t know that for certain.”

The Summer Society redhead covered the mouthpiece of the phone.

“You don’t have to defend her, Laura. Besides, even you’d admit she’s lazy and anti-social.”

“Well, yeah, but-”

Danny heard Levi on the other side of the line.

“-calling an emergency meeting. Get your game face on.”

Danny gulped at that. _Putting on the war paint outside of the Adonis Festival?_

That meant the Summer Society was going on a Hunt.


	5. Dirt Dance Floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration to this chapter:  
> Marilyn Manson: Lunchbox  
> Linkin Park: Bleed it Out
> 
> This is the second time I've named a chapter of my writing after LP's "Bleed it Out", the first time was in 50 Flavors Fulfilled because LaFerry should totally rap this together.

The Summer’s House had a nervous energy as various Warriors of Artemis had their war paint on and weapons sheathed and slung onto their bodies, the ones who had not qualified to be part of the strike team working like a well-oiled machine as they were updating the campus map with the scrying data provided by Jessie and her darkly-glowing dagger.

“About time you show up, Lawrence. Here I thought you were going to make puppy-dog eyes to that freshman Hollandaise all night.” Mel sneered at her as Danny was handed her black Hazard 4 Waistland MOLLE Load Belt by Sam, who was already sporting the Tiwaz Rune on her face.

“Thanks Sam,” Danny replied, pulling out the grease paint and made quick work of her warpaint design: sweeping diagonal eyeblack on either cheekbone and a vertical line on her forehead and chin. The belt had been modified to include a shoulder belt and straps for her sword and dagger weapons, as well as a drop holster for her Desert Eagle. Her sword was a modern, elongated falchion and the dagger was made to match it, at only 18” long.

Chloe was sporting her jungle cat warpaint and helping Callis get into her gear, as Mel honed the blade of her cold iron kukri one last time before holstering it.

“Sector 8-G clear! If Watts is out there, she’s either by the Ley Line Reactor or in the Deep Thicket.” Jessie called out, looking pale from magical exertion.

“The only places where your magic can’t penetrate,” Huntress Roman replied in frustration, “Alright, Sam and Levi, you’re with me at the Reactor. Chloe and Danny; go with Mel and check out the Deep Thicket. Jessie, if you’re able, join them in support role.” Roman looked to the rest of the sisters. “You lot defend the House, contact Kirsten and Jia if you don’t hear from us in 12 hours. By Artemis!”

“BY ARTEMIS!” The Sisters replied as one.

Mel looked over to Jessie, who took a long sip from her mug and gave a fierce nod, her red braveheart stripe glowing darkly in the nighttime.

“Okay, let’s move out.” As Mel lead their team, Danny nodded and whispered a ‘good hunting’ to Sam and Levi, who was sporting her batman-esque war paint and gripped her brass knuckle knife as they left the House and went south.

As Mel’s team left the house and turned Northwest, the wards rippled around them all, adding a layer of defense to each of the Warriors of Artemis.

It would take about fifteen minutes to make it to the outskirts of campus where the forest grew so dense that it was given the name Dark Thicket, and daylight rarely touched the ground there.

Chloe seemed wired with nervous energy as she quietly hummed to herself before softly singing the lyrics.

 _“The big bully try to stick his finger in my chest_  
_Try to tell me tell me he's the best_  
_But I don't really give a good goddamn cause…_

Danny recognized the song, joining in as she gave her sister a reassuring shoulder squeeze.

 _“I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well_  
_I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well_  
_I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well...”_

“Really, Lawrence?” Mel asked, nodding to Danny’s drop holster. “You need a 50-cal pistol for your giant man hands?”

Danny rolled her eyes, huffing at that. “I like the stopping power.” She looked at the team leader’s back and startled in surprise. **_“You brought a goddamn grenade launcher?!”_ **

Mel shrugged nonchalantly.

“I like keeping my options open.”

“We are on a RESCUE MISSION for our sister!”

“The only way Watts would not have come back is if she's dead. That means we are on a recovery mission for her body and hunting whatever killed a werewolf on a full moon!”

Jessie’s voice cut through, the raspiness making everyone touch their own throats in sympathetic pain.

“She's not dead!” Jessie cleared her throat, which sounded like broken glass, “I checked for her alive, dead, and as a werewolf. The only places she can be is in the magically dead zones.”

“Roman put me in charge of this team because I'm not holding onto any _false hopes_ and am ready to do what needs to be done for the Sisterhood,” Mel snapped, “so if any of you don't like it, go back to the House with your **_tail between your legs_**.”

Chloe growled deep in her throat at that, every bit of the jungle cat coming through her stance.

“Lead, Callis. I'm here for Lawrence, Jessie, and Watts. Don't think for a _second_ that I agree with you.”

The four of them were at the edge of the campus, where the Dark Thicket was practically a wall of trees as a symbolic ‘fuck you’ to the pavement jungle of human progress. Each Warrior had to check their gear as they stepped through as it would catch on the various branches and vines that attempted to make the area impenetrable.

“Jessie, light us up.” Danny asks as the mage summons a ball of light with her dagger, handing the semi-solid sphere to the tall redhead.

Danny took it with a grimace, feeling the warmth drip between her fingers even though there was nothing to actually drip.

“Toss it up in the air Lawrence; you got the best arm.” Jessie replied as the redhead did her best softball pitch and got the luminous orb near the top of the shortest trees in the area. Jessie whispered something in a different language, making the light ‘stick’ overhead.

“Thanks.” Chloe said as she peered into the distance, ignoring the fuming look on Mel’s face.

“I’m team lead, and that light is going to attract whatever attacked Watts!” Mel muttered to the group.

“Well, Callis, you said this was a hunt. Better protect my six.” Danny replied, turning her back to her and pulling out the Desert Eagle and the dagger. The other two sisters turned in opposite directions so that the group stayed back-to-back and had all 360 degrees covered as they made their way deeper into the Dark Thicket.

Lawrence had practiced European Martial Arts and was quite adept at the sword-and-dagger stance; using the off hand with the dagger for blocking while her more powerful (and dextrous) hand wielded the long falchion to cut through enemies. Right now, she was using the Desert Eagle since the dense vegetation would be problematic.

A second later she heard Mel unhoster her Kukri, and Chloe bring her machete up to the ready.

“What are you shooting with, Jessie?” Danny asked, in hopes to ease the tension.

“Glock 43 with standard copper-and-lead ammo. Fits my hand best and the lead will take down any Fae. You?”

“Also standard ammo, but I have a magazine of silver-plated just in case.”

“ **What?!** ”

“Oh, not for Watts, for anything else we don’t want eating our faces.”

Chloe interrupted them. “Hey, I got movement on my perimeter.”

Mel turned to look that way as well. “Can you sense or scry, Jessie?”

The mage shook her head at that. “A simple light spell is the best I can pull off here; the Ley Lines here, for lack of a better word, are knotted together. It makes magic near impossible.”

“Why is that?” Chloe asked as the team made their way towards the movement.

“My magic is the manipulation of ley line energy; it has to be in harmony for me to touch and use. And here and over at the Reactor it’s pretty out of whack.”

Mel furrowed her eyebrows at that. “Anywhere else where the lines aren’t lining up right?”

Jessie shrugged at that. “Yeah, the Lustig Building. I think these knots are responsible for the void there. Strangely enough, my magic is actually stronger there.”

A pained moan was audible, making the team move quicker with their weapons drawn towards the noise. A naked and badly beaten Watts was lying face-up on the ground, gasping as she saw the fellow Warriors of Artemis.

“Ha… hey guys.” She coughed, blood spurting out of her mouth, voice wracked with pain. “I think…”

“Hey, save your strength, Huntress.” Mel said, taking a knee and checking her wounds. “You got bit, some broken ribs… can you shift and heal?”

Watts points to her arm as she breathes through clenched teeth.

“Get. It off…. Get… offf….”

“Suffering Sappho, you got banded in silver!” Mel gasped in horror, looking to her fellow Sisters. “Anyone got a wire cutter?”

They shook their heads.

“I can get my Kukri in there, but… I might break your wrist.”

Danny thought quickly and slid her dagger under the werewolf’s wrist on the opposite side as a brace. “Callis, will this work?”

Mel slipped her Kukri under the band, rotating it into a tourniquet around the wrist and dagger, making the sharp blade put strain on the fused silver band.

“On three…” Mel said, watching Watts nod in pain as she wanted this over already. “THREE!”

The dagger jerked quickly, snapping the band as the Huntress’ form exploded in fur and shifter plasm.

Danny pulled back, grossed out by the clear, tacky fluid that always seemed to come when she or Jia transformed on the full moon.

“Ugh, I’m going to need to scrub my dagger with comet when we get back…” Danny noticed the clear fluid splattered across her pants and her tactical belt, reeking of werewolf. She tried to wipe her hands clean on her shirt to no avail as she took point and kept scanning her part of the Dark Thicket.

As a werewolf, Watts got up to her feet and growled as she pointed off into the distance.

“Huh?” Mel asked nobody in particular.

“She says she was ambushed by something... not-a-cat?” Jessie asked more than stated, trying to look into the werewolf’s eyes. “I only get images, slow down!”

Watts huffed as she turned and ran into deeper into the thicket, with an elegant grace on four legs that no human ever had on just two.

“Either she’s off to kill the not-cat that attacked her, or she’s hungry and needs a kill.”

In the distance there were growls and a deep roar that seemed to vibrate within the ground, making all of the Warriors of Artemis switch to their ranged weapons.

Chloe sniffed the air as her voice went gravelly. “She’s bringing her quarry this way.”

Branches snapped as a feline roar broke through the thicket, a dark blur pounced through the copse of vines and trees while Chloe loosed arrows while Danny and Jessie’s gunshots filled the air with the acrid smell of burned gunpowder.

Mel raised her grenade launcher, calculated the direction that the creature was going, and pulled the trigger, lobbing a fragmentation grenade deep into the brush and woods.

_Watts, thank the gods, was smart enough to not follow the dark blur into the kill zone._

The Hunt continued as the four of them advanced to about ten feet away from where the grenade landed and took a knee, finding cover amid the dense brush.

“Jessie, any reading on it?”

Jessie shook her head. “That’s… not on my senses at all. It’s got to be there, but… it’s not.”

Danny took a moment to stand and look through the heavy vegetation.

“I don’t see it. Think we hit it?”

Watts shifted back into human form, collapsing by Chloe.

“You hit it,” she gasped, “but it got away. I can’t smell it now.”

Mel frowned at that. “Smells don’t just disappear though.”

Chloe shrugged. “This one apparently can.”

Danny nodded to Watts, handing her a shirt and shorts that she could wear on the walk back to the SummerSoc House.

“Glad you’re okay. So what was it that attacked you?”

The Huntress put the pants on as she set her jaw.

“It came out of nowhere; one minute everything was still… the next, there was this giant black cat.”

* * *

Back at the Summer Society House, Huntress Roman was already making plans for night patrols and to offer escorts to any women at Silas who felt unsafe at night. Second Huntress Watts was sleeping off her shifting, dead to the world for the next day or so. Danny had changed out of her clothes and gear as it had been covered in shifter plasm, leaving her temporarily unarmed until she could get a load of laundry done.

“Sisters, until we can figure out what the threat is on campus that’s kidnapping women on campus, and because it nearly took out Second Huntress Watts, we’re going to divide the campus up into quadrants and have at least one Warrior on each escort pair so we can rotate and have nights off.

Sam, you have the northwest part of campus; Chloe, southwest; Levi, northeast; and Jessie takes the southeast. Callis will float and sub-in for each of you round-robin style, patrols and escorts will be available from sundown until midnight.”

Danny raised her hand, “Roman, what about-”

“-you already have your orders, Danny. Protect Laura as you two get to the bottom of this. Each Warrior please pick a sister to pair up with for the patrols, and keep your phone on you in case someone calls up for an escort. Dismissed.”

While the Sisters were getting selected and a schedule was being made, Mel strolled over to look down on the tall redhead.

“You heard her, go run back and _play lapdog,_ Lawrence. Leave the fighting to those of us who _belong_ here.”

Danny clenched her jaw as she let the insult slide.

“I look forward to forgiving your attitude when I’m First Huntress.” Danny whispered menacingly.

Mel turned and saw that most of the Sisterhood’s eyes were locked onto the pair of them, scowling at her.

“This time next year, Lawrence, they will see what I do; that you don’t belong here.” Mel peeled away, a cadre of recruits and a sister following in her wake.

Levi stood next to Danny, shaking her head in disgust.

“Sometimes I wish we didn’t get to _vote_ on who becomes the SummerSoc President.”

Danny sighed in sad agreement.

“Yeah, at least the recruits can't vote yet.”

Sarah, a Summers sister who hadn't earned Warrior status yet, but had surpassed the recruit stage, volunteered to pair up with Levi.

“You've got my vote, Danny,” Sarah turned her green eyes to Levi, “shall we go patrol?”

Levi nodded to the petite blonde, handing her the cold steel brass knuckle knife.

“I expect this back in one piece.”

* * *

Danny had to trade bathroom cleaning duty in order to get to the top of the laundry rotation, but she would feel naked without her tactical belt and thigh holster. There was no way she could simply tuck a Desert Eagle into her pants, and there was no way she was going to remain unarmed when something that could take down a werewolf was potentially roaming the campus.

Second Huntress Watts voice boomed throughout the house by aid of the Ceremonial Sword.

“We need backup at the rec center; Levi says that the girls swim team is getting harassed by the Zetas and is asking for our assistance.”

Danny hurdled the baskets of laundry and made her way up from the utility basement, passing by Mel who was bickering with a recruit on how to clip on her Kukri holster and was past the wards in seconds.

The redhead was crossing the campus faster than her mind could keep up as she was completely unarmed and wearing a plain black t-shirt, green denim leggings, and her favorite Chuck Taylor Converse shoes. The familiar wash of protection from the wards was the only comfort as her feet slapped the pavement hard as she ran across campus.

By the time Danny arrived at the scene, Sarah was getting shoved by the Zeta Will, making Levi step in to try and diffuse the situation.

Before Danny could get there, a black blur had jumped between them and had snared Sarah's wrist in a giant feline jaw, dragging it away as the Zetas and the swim team looked on in horror and confusion.

_It was massive black panther, the one that had taken down Watts earlier._

“What the fuck…”

“Did that just happen?”

“Danny? Catch!” Levi called out as she tossed one of her Ruger LC9s and fired at the Black Panther whose jaw was clenched tightly around Sarah’s neck, immobilizing the Sister.

_Time to dance, kitty._

Sarah was wearing the brass knuckles, blade sticking out from the pinky finger side of the Fist as she kept stabbing into the black leopard that was attempting to break her neck as the creature turned into dark smoke, rematerializing two feet away as the bullets that Levi fired dropped uselessly on top of Sarah, snarling at the two Warriors of Artemis.

As The Zeta Omega Mu fraternity ran at the sound of gunshots, Danny had the panther in her sights and was quickly firing her clip into its head. The creature turned to dark smoke again, reforming without the bullets embedded, but still looking worse for wear as both Warriors’ pistols clicked empty.

“Got anything else?” Danny asked, forcing herself to stay calm as the black feline creature growled and began to stalk them like prey. The creature turned and noticed Levi was reaching for another magazine, lunging forward with claws extended and tore a gash through the forearm, making her drop her pistol in agony as blood poured from the wound.

Without even thinking, Danny lunged and knocked the panther away from her sister, earning a massive swipe of claws across her face, knocking her off balance and nearly slammed the redhead’s face into the pavement.

Danny blinked the blood out of her eyes, wincing as she felt the wounds closing up with preternatural speed. Even Levi’s arm was intact and the freely-bleeding wound closed up like magic.

_Good protection charm, Jessie!_

“DROP!” Mel shouted, her Sage Control pointed past them and at the creature, “Incendiaries!”

_By Artemis, she’s fucking crazy!_

Danny and Levi ran away from the giant cat as it turned and bounded towards Callis, trigger pulled and engulfing the feline-creature in flame.

The creature turned to smoke again, but this time the flaming ordinance stuck to the fur, making the cat yowl in pain and run away in search for water or something.

“Was that what I think it was?” Mel asked the stunned Sisters, who nodded while panting.

Levi was changing the magazine in her pistol and handed her final spare to Danny, who was working on automatic to eject, replace, and work the slide to chamber the first round.

More Summers sisters were arriving as they made certain that the swim team was alright, even as they seemed pretty shaken. It wasn’t until Levi was doing CPR chest compressions that Danny even recognized Sarah.

“Sarah! You gotta fix my knife first, don’t do this to me!”

Mel had her phone out already, calling for medical assistance as her face was flushed with anxiety. Her eyes, wide with shock, met Danny’s as she visibly calmed down and whipped off her t-shirt, ripping a sleeve off and giving it to the redhead to wipe down her face as she knelt next to Sarah and applied pressure on the wounded arm with bite-marks.

“Danny, that thing went towards the dorms.”

Danny wiped the blood off of her face as Mel’s words hit home.

 _Laura._ **_SHIT!_ **

“You got this, Callis?” Danny asked, nodding to Levi and Sarah.

“Yeah, go!”

Danny ran away from the fire fight, sweeping her hair out of her face and smudging the war paint on her forehead, tossing the ruined t-shirt sleeve away. She was grateful for the protection and healing it gave her as she made a beeline for Laura’s room.

Once she bounded up the stairs, she thought better of being openly armed and stuffed the gun in the back of pants waistband, charging through the never-locked door.

“Are you okay? Did they try to get in?”

“Who are ‘they’?” Laura asked, puzzled at the sound outside.

Danny did some quick thinking, knowing that the truth would make the tiny terror want to go chase the creature down… _and probably try to talk to it about feelings rather than hit it with a flamethrower._

“-the Zetas. They were trying to walk the women’s swim team home form the gym, but then one of the girls called us for help. But then _someone shoved someone_ , and now it’s turned into this big turf war over who’ll protect the gym or the track or who knows what else! I didn’t know if it made it this far. I had to know if you were okay.”

_And not getting eaten by a creature impervious to bullets._

“Oh, wow. That’s… why are you wearing warpaint?”

Danny can’t think of a believable answer, but is saved by a last-second knock at the door.

“Hey, little nerd! Laura! Are you in there?”

_The. Fucking. Zetas._

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Laura gets up to go the door as Danny is riding the adrenaline high and panics, uncertain how to save Laura from herself… _or the truth._

“Laura? Laura! What are you doing?”

“It’s only Kirsch,” Laura admonishes as she opens the door, “we’re fine!”  
  
Kirsch looks in, relieved that his lit TA was there defending her.

“I was really worried about you because-”

Danny grabs his ear and drags him over to the bed, making certain he didn’t mention anything she’d have a hard time explaining, like her already healed facial wounds.

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow!”

“-Danny, geeze!”

“Come on! Why are the hotties in this room always trying to hurt me?!”  
  
Danny’s panic was lessening as she saw that Kirsch wasn’t a threat.

“Karma?” She asked, shrugging.

“Uncool, Summer Pycho. Not Mark of Kingsberry rules.”

“That’s boxing, _dumbass._ ” she turns to face Laura, already thinking of how to discredit whatever he says. “I can’t believe you let him in here! For all you know, _he_ was trying to take this dorm for the Zetas!”

Danny hoped that she could keep up this ruse in order to protect her.

“Hey, we’re just trying to protect hot people!”

_He really is making this easier for me to hate him, and to sell this lie._

“The only threat to the girls in this dorm are you and your _fratdaddy_ frats.”

Laura attempts to play the peacemaker as she tries to get between them.

“Okay, maybe we should just-”

Kirsch stands up at that, looking like a kicked puppy.

“That is unfair, okay, cause I’m here out of the, like, _bro-ness of my heart_ , alright? I’m not even trying to hook up cause I got a girlfriend, alright? So why is everyone so pissed at us because we’re trying to keep the campus safe?”

Danny recalled the ‘hotties 7.0 and hotter’ rule that the Zetas enacted for their ‘protection’ that came across more like leering and strutting.

“Because safe for _you goons_ does not mean safe for **everyone else!** ”

Laura tried again at the diplomacy. “Okay, no, no, seriously…”

Kirsch took offense to being called a goon for what he’s been trying to do for the campus.

“If you weren’t such a hottie, you’d be in big, big trouble.”

Danny’s rage flares up at that, triggering a memory of getting bullied in middle school for being a ‘pretty boy’ and shoves Kirsh onto the bed, fists raised and ready to defend herself like she had to all through middle and high school before she went stealth in college.

“Bring it, popped collar!”  
  
Laura forces her way between them, pushing them apart to hopefully stop the escalation.

“Okay! Stop it! Stop it, both of you! I get it. You _both_ wanna protect the campus. So, has it even occurred to you that while you’re duking it out, nobody is actually out there protecting anybody at all?!”

Danny knew that the sisters were doing just that.

“But he’s the one who started-”

Laura cut her off, annoyed.

“He started it, really?”

Kirsch, bless him, put his foot back in his mouth.

“We totally didn’t start it!”  
  
Laura huffed in exasperation.

“Not helping! All I’m saying is that the _actually useful thing_ to do might be to skip the smack-down in the middle of my bedroom, and go talk some sense into the idiots _setting fire to security carts_ over who gets to protect people!”

Danny kept a neutral face as she guessed that the security cart fires was probably Mel's fault somehow.

Kirsch looked at Laura in awe.

“I knew from the first day of English Lit that you were smart,” Kirsch looks to Danny, hoping to find agreement, “she is so smart.”

“Yes, she is.”

“And a hottie, that’s the perfect-”

_Perfect bait? Hell no, not happening. No way, no how…_

”Aaaand it’s time for you to go now,” Danny says as she pushes Kirsch out of Laura’s room, surprised that the ruse held up. “Laura, are you sure you’re gonna be okay by yourself?”

Danny hoped that Laura would invite her to stay to protect her from her roommate Carmilla, but saw the glaring flaw in her plan. _Laura would try to be noble about it._

“I’m fine. Besides, she doesn’t know that I know anything. I should be worried about you, turf war and all.”

_Right. The Zetas and the Summer Society are having a turf war._

“Ah, it’s mostly just paintballs and anchovies. I’ll talk them down.”

Danny didn’t know where Carmilla was, and almost worried that she was the latest victim of whomever was abducting girls on campus.

 _Almost_.


	6. Shake it Out

Danny was behind in her own schoolwork, behind in grading the literature quizzes for Professor Marston’s class, and behind in patrol points for the Summer Society.

She knew she had to buckle down and prioritize her limited time to actually doing _constructive_ things. And that meant to quit watching Laura's videos and obsessing if she and the freshman would ever get on the same page about everything between them.

So Danny plugged in her walkman, turned on her _Florence and the Machine_ playlist and began listening to ‘Shake it Out’ as she ran the quiz sheets through the automatic grading machine, hearing the heavy clicks as each wrong answer got stamped with a red line and computed the percentile score automatically.

_Regrets collect like old friends_  
_Here to relive your darkest moments_  
_I can see no way, I can see no way_  
_And all of the ghouls come out to play_  
_And every demon wants his pound of flesh_  
_But I like to keep some things to myself_  
_I like to keep my issues drawn_ _  
It's always darkest before the dawn_

This song meant more to her now as she was living full-time as her authentic self, as Danny, but how was she supposed to come clean about all this to Laura?

_Hey, so don't take this the wrong way but in the time that we’ve spent together… I've developed feelings for you... while hiding the fact that I’m mostly here because I have been assigned to protect you. And on top of lying to you about all that, I’ve withheld that I'm trans. So… surprise?_

Danny knew her chances were completely fucked until the disappearances ended and get solved as well as having the ovaries to come out to her.

_Shake it out indeed… it’s hard to dance with a devil on your back..._

Once the quizzes were graded and all she had to do was input the scores to the spreadsheet, Danny decided that maybe one more of Laura’s videos couldn't hurt.

For a multiple choice quiz on the characters and themes of Beowulf, Danny was surprised at the range of scores in the class. It’s as if Kirsh only depended on watching the movie to understand the thematic elements.

_“And Danny’s not my girlfriend. I don't… think.”_

Danny felt the dagger twist in her heart at Laura's comment, before she and Carmilla stated talking about having strange dreams.

The tallest Warrior of Artemis wasn't as convinced that Carmilla was behind the disappearances like Laura was, and it bothered her that the antisocial misanthrope took up so much of Laura's mind lately.

Was it jealousy? _Maybe_ . Was she glad that LaFontaine was tailing Carmilla, just in case? _Definitely._

The montage of Carmilla being a horrible roommate reassured Danny only somewhat as she kept entering quiz scores, upset to see Laura's grades begin to drop as she focused so much on Carmilla being… well, Carmilla.

It wasn't until she heard Carmilla giving Laura a dried bat wing bracelet charm that Danny put down the grading and watched the video with rapt attention.

She didn't like how Carmilla was looking at her Laura. Nor how she smiled when Laura thanked her.

“Lawrence, can we talk?” Mel said at the doorway before entering the office.

Danny nodded and waved her in, eyes glued to the monitor as the raven haired girl actually flirted with Laura.

_“Was that… Was she just flir-”_

Mel scoffed as the video ended, making Danny close the window with a heavier than needed keystroke.

“Silas is depending on the observational skills of little miss clueless there? We're boned.”

“What do you want, Callis?” Danny huffed, not really wanting to deal with her right now. Or ever.

“Sorry. Danny, I just came to apologize.”

_She said Danny, not just ‘Lawrence’? That's new._

“What for?”

“You proved yourself fighting to protect Watts, and uh, I was wrong about you.”

Danny shrugged noncommittally at that.

“Thanks I guess.”

Mel turned away from Danny, as if she couldn't face the reaction.

“It's not like we're going to be best friends or anything.”

“Of course not.”

Mel nodded at that, reassured at the non friendship.

“Well I've got my patrol to finish before sundown so I'll see you back at the House.” Mel said as she turned to leave. “And turn off those damn videos. Nobody likes the emo ‘woe unto me’ schtick.”

Sighing, Danny knew that Mel was right as she looked at the time and began to pack up so she could get back to the House before nightfall.

Lawrence was at the wards to the Summer Society house when her phone beeped with a text message from Laura.

**_Come quick.  Stuck in Library.  Bring fire extinguisher._ **

Danny huffed in disbelief, ran inside the house, and dropped her backpack to the ground before taking the fire extinguisher from the wall mount, ignoring the questions and the concerned looks sent her way as the tall ginger sprinted across campus to make it to the library.

_After sundown._

Laura wasn’t making Danny’s job any easier.

* * *

Danny entered the library, where both the librarian on duty and the library security were sliced apart into irregular chunks, and she was unable to imagine how every slice was done so perfectly smooth and flat, albeit at strange angles.

_If it were some sort of light saber, there would be charred flesh around the wounds._

The lights in the library brightened, making Danny want to shield her eyes as if it were the midday sun.

The computer monitors flashed a message across the screen.

**STAY OUT OF THE SHADOWS**

“Laura?” Danny asked, looking around for her friend.

**THEY ARE IN THE SUB-BASEMENT**

“Huh?”

**HURRY**

_The library is trying to help?_ Danny wondered as she ran to the stairwell down to the basement. It was the standard fire-exit style stairs, except for the lack of stairs when she slammed the door open.

The steps appeared for one second, and then disappeared, only to reappear again. The landing at the other end of the steps were solid, so it was merely an issue of a timing puzzle to make it across with one jump.

Clutching the fire extinguisher close to her chest, Danny counted the seconds away and timed her jump to land on the step just after the three seconds of it missing ended. With that, she leaped again and made it to the landing, kicking the door open to the basement as she heard the stairwell collapse and saw the doorway behind her transform into a solid wall.

_Guess that way out is closed… what was up there?_ Danny thought as she ran, pulse racing, to the other end of the basement where there was only a single stairwell that had access to the sub-basement.

It was an open secret that the library was unsafe after dark, but nobody knew exactly what monster existed in the sub-basement, nor why it seemed to be out of phase with normal reality when the sun was up.

The theory was that the sub-basement was a prison for the unknown creature, and that is why part of the building isn’t accessible during daylight hours. Danny was mentally kicking herself for forgetting to grab her Desert Eagle with silver ammo.

What wasn’t theory was the doorway to the stairwell to the sub-basement was missing. Danny started to run the perimeter of the basement, looking for where the stairwell had moved to. It wasn’t long before the door appeared, opening up, with LaFontaine yelling for Danny.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“Did you bring-” they asked, speaking faster than their eyes could track the fire extinguisher in the Summer’s hands. LaFontaine seemed to be holding a lighter and a can of bear repellant, and the smell told her that they had been using it to be a makeshift flamethrower.

Danny ripped the pin out, pulled up the nozzle, and proceeded to put out the flaming books on the nearby shelves as the air in the cramped quarters seemed to spin with ferocity. The ginger looked down the stacks to see a small cyclone of fire, pulling in paper and stray books as it seemed to come towards them.

“SHIT!” Danny yelled, moving towards it and spraying the fire-extinguishing chemicals at the fiery pillar.

“WATCH OUT!” Laura called, making Danny instinctively duck as a flaming book flew overhead, almost knocking her out.

“Lawrence, the skittering sound is getting closer and the stairwell is about to move again!”

“What?” Danny asked, turning the nozzle upward to take out the flaming ordinance set on dive-bombing the trio. LaF dropped the bear spray and caught the book, stabbing it with a dagger once it was on the ground.

"I got you, you little fuc-"

“We gotta retreat!” Laura yelled, stomping her way up the stairs with a portrait in her hands.

Danny watched as both Laura and LaFontaine made their way up the stairs and followed them, facing down into the sub-basement in case anything else came up to attack them.

As they cleared the stairwell and doorway, it disappeared again and left the three of them in the basement, where the lights were struggling to stay on and the computer monitors flashed a single word on the screens.

**RUN**

LaFontaine ran towards the wall where the stairs should have been, skewered book in their hands still fighting to escape and attack. “Looks like this one got moved, too!”

Laura looked around, panicking. “I don’t see it!”

A skin-crawling skittering sound got louder as whatever it was hit the sub-basement door and it remained shut, followed by banging and scratching sounds that reminded one of claws against reinforced steel. The smoke from the sub-basement hit a smoke detector, setting off an ear-piercing shriek and the overhead sprinklers went off, making it rain in the basement.

“The Stairwell is gone!” Danny yelled, the panic getting to her, “it collapsed on my way down.”

LaFontaine pointed up to a narrow horizontal window at the ceiling. “We can crawl through there!”

They grabbed a nearby step stool and helped Laura climb her way up, handing off the portrait as she unlocks and opens the window.

“Hand it back!” Laura demands as LaF makes their way out, leaving Danny to defend the three of them with only a mostly depleted fire extinguisher as the skittering sound got louder, as if it were inside her own skull.

“GO!” Danny cried out, certain that whatever it was would be on them within seconds.

LaFontaine made their way out, yelling at Lawrence to leave the extinguisher behind.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Danny muttered, throwing the extinguisher to clatter down the hallway as a last minute diversion as she climbed up and awkwardly angled her longer body through the window, grateful that Laura and LaFontaine were there to pull her out from the other side.

Once Danny was clear, she kicked the window shut and LaFontaine was was barricading it shut by rolling a large rock in the way, hearing it thump into place.

“Hey, we made it!” Laura gasped in excitement.

Danny turned on her, fury in her voice and her body shaking with rage.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

* * *

Laura and LaFontaine were sitting by the computer; while Perry was treating LaF’s injuries, Danny was fuming in the background, upset at having to rescue Laura from being Laura. Again.

Of course, she didn’t see anything wrong with what she did.

“Danny, did you have any trouble getting to us?”

She shrugged, knowing that the dead bodies in the library would only distract Laura from the case of the missing girls.  _ And that she would have tried to pin that on Carmilla too. _

“Well, I’m going to finish my video, Danny.”

“Oh,  **_that’s_ ** what’s important right now, your  **vlog** ? Do you have  _ any idea _ the amount of trouble I will be in if anything happ-”

Laura sighs, ignoring her accidental heroine. “-I’m hitting record now-”

“You should never have gone out that late!”

“I know.”

“And without telling anyone!” Danny reinforced, knowing that she was nagging but didn’t care.

“I know!  We’re sorry, we’re sorry!  For everyone just catching up at home, it’s been an … exciting evening.  LaFontaine and I crashed the Faculty Club.”

LaFontaine cut in. 

“Brilliantly disguised as a young visiting professor and research assistant.”

Laura winced slightly at that.

“Sadly, our cover was blown before we could get to the Dean.  Because _somebody_ ,” Laura intones as she looks directly at LaFontaine, “decided to get into an argument with the head of Gnostic Mathematics about the _long-term strategic plan for the Illuminati._ ”

“It was a chance to raise awareness.”

“But, as we were being bodily dragged from the Club, I snatched victory from the jaws of total failure by snatching this off the wall. 

Laura holds up the portrait of six young women. 

“This is the Dean’s Special Council meeting in 1954.  So,” Laura points at one of the young women in the photo, “is that Carmilla’s grandmother, great aunt …? There’s no names on the back of the photo.  But, there was one way to find out…”

_ Of course Laura was going to blame Carmilla. _

Danny huffed in exasperation at that. 

“Oh, sure. You know, tell it like this insane plan that the pair of you hatched was the logical next step.” Danny moved forward and spoke to the camera. “Do you know what  _ this girl  _ did? At  **6:48 PM?** These two  _ geniuses  _ decided to hit up the Library.”

Laura shrugged nervously at that. 

“Which I admit, in retrospect, was not the most brilliant idea.” Perry hands Laura a comforting mug of cocoa. “Thanks.”

Perry frowned in judgment at the freshman.

“Everything in your fridge is made of glucose and palm oil. I’m surprised you don’t have scurvy.”

Laura grinned at that shamefully. 

“I know, but delicious cookies?” She turns back to the camera. “Everything was fine! At first… As soon as we got there, everyone was leaving the building... and yes, as the Sun went down, we started to hear something…”

“Skittering?” LaFontaine injects.

”Yeah, skittering in the stacks, you know? Just beyond your periphery. But we made it into the first sub-basement just fine.” 

LaFontaine nodded at that. 

“The online system was really helpful. It gave us a cross-reference list before I even started typing.”

Laura nodded in agreement. 

“So, we found most of the textbooks before, uh, between 19-”

Danny interrupted in frustration.

“Before you realized the staircase wasn’t  _ in the same place anymore? _ ”

“-before we realized we  _ might have  _ gotten a little turned around.

Laura looks back at Danny, who is openly glaring at her, making her optimistic face fall slightly.

“-And that most of the computer monitors we could see were warning us to  _ “Run. Run now”. _ And the skittering was getting closer.”

LaFontaine took over as they noticed the hostility between Laura and Danny.

“Which is when it became apparent that some of the books were, well, airborne. And that the card catalogue was attacking us. A copy of  _ Absalom, Absalom! _ tried to slice open my left wrist. Ruined Faulkner for me.”

Laura recomposed herself, doing her best to ignore Danny’s glaring eyes.

“So, we did what any normal person would do if they were caught in a flying vortex of modern literature and… index cards from the 1970s.”

LaFontaine nodded slightly, proud of themself.

“We created a flamethrower using a lighter and some mace Laura’s dad gave her.”

“Which left us trapped in a flaming vortex.”

Danny huffed silently, cutting in.

“I get a text that says  _ ‘Come quick.  Stuck in Library.  Bring fire extinguisher’ _ .”

Laura did her best to not roll her eyes.

“Okay, yes, but it turned out fine. The sprinklers came on and we snuck out a basement window.” 

“Oh, yeah, with  _ God knows what  _ on your heels.”

“Okay, yes! It was stupid, and we’re lucky that you didn’t have to  _ save our souls _ . Now, can we  _ please  _ skip to the part where once every twenty years,  _ like clockwork, _ this girl shows up at Silas-”

“-Mircalla Karnstein”

“-Arcillma Karnstein”

“-Mircalla - seriously, she just keeps on switching around the letters in her name like nobody’s ever heard of an anagram.  _ And every time she does, _ a bunch of girls go missing. Poof. Vanish. Never seen again. I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but she’s nocturnal. She’s so strong, she’s at least 80 years old and she drinks blood.”

Danny felt like the ground fell out from under her feet.

_ The blood in the soy milk container wasn’t a prank? _

LaF shrugged at that. “Well, yeah, but we know she’s a vampire. I mean, we’ve know that since the blood in the milk container, right? Vampire?”

They look to Perry. “Vampire?” 

LaFontaine turns their head towards Danny. “Vampire, yeah?”   



	7. Vampire?!

_ The blood in the soy milk container. _

_ Sleeping the day away and only going to night classes. _

Danny knew that her college was strange, but never that it would host vampires as students. 

_ If the Dean came to tell Carmilla off, that means that the Dean knows she’s a vampire. _

A chill went through Danny as she realized that Laura might be right. Pulling out her phone, she fires off a quick message to Jesse.

**_Carmilla is a vampire. How do we deal with one? Also the Dean has to know/be in on the kidnappings._ **

Danny looked back up to see Laura also freaking out.

“You all knew I was living with a vampire and nobody said anything?”

LaFontaine looked at her, stunned. “You really didn’t know?”

“I didn’t know!” Danny blurted out, not wanting to make Laura feel dumb.

LaFontaine shrugged, realizing that they were probably the least dense person in the room.

“I thought you were just playing it cool, you know? Didn’t wanna seem all speciesist...”

“Speciesist?” Laura replied, skeptical on the term.

Perry raised her hands, hoping to instill a sense of calm.

“She’s not a vampire. There’s  _ no such thing  _ as vampires. She’s a…  _ light-averse octogenarian  _ with extreme hemoglobin deficiency and really good skin.” She paused, realing how she was barely convincing herself there. “I’m gonna go make some more hot chocolate.”

Laura attempts to piece it all together, 

“So, something is taking girls and the ones that have come back have gone full-on Lucy from  _ Dracula _ , and you don’t think that my roommate being a vampire is, I don’t know,  _ pertinent information?” _

LaFontaine looked at Laura like they had never seen them before in their life.

“Well, when you put it that way…”

Laura’s eyes went wide with alarm.  _ Oh no, the paranoia is back... _   
  
“And I’m  **next!** She’s making with the creepy dreams and the charms…”

LaFontaine nodded in understanding.

“And the seduction eyes.”

Jealousy tore through Danny with white hot rage. 

_ Laura  _ **_hates_ ** _ Carmilla. Why would Carmilla even try to- _

“Seduction eyes?” Danny interjected, wondering how Carmilla could even think she could bite  _ her _ Laura.

Laura panicked.

“I am totally next! Quick! Check my neck, is there anything on my neck?!

The jealousy flared again as Danny realized that she considered Laura hers. 

“Wait, seduction eyes?!” 

_ Carmilla wants Laura for her blood or to be the next kidnapping victim?! No… this can’t be true… _

Perry and LaFontaine check her neck, noticing there are no bite marks.

“There’s nothing on your neck, Laura.  You’re fine.”

Laura nodded, more in panic than in relief. 

“Oh my gosh. She’s a vampire.” 

Danny’s phone vibrates as she checks the messages coming in from Jessie.  

“My roommate is an honest-to-Lestat vampire. How do we stop a vampire?”

_**Staking, decapitation, or immolation. Sarah says that a state or torpor may be achieved putting an iron needle through the heart. Do we need to inform the Huntress about this?** _

Danny starts to read part of the text aloud, sending back the single word  **_’Yes’_ ** .

“Staking, decapitation, immolation, uh, there’s something here about driving an iron needle through her heart. You know, normally I’m not into this kind of stuff, but in the case of seduction eyes, I could definitely warm up to the thought.”

Perry interjected, refusing to accept the preternatural world that surrounded her. “No! N-n-n-n-n-no! We can’t  _ immolate  _ everyone that Su- LaFontaine thinks is a supernatural creature.”

LaFontaine shrugged that off. 

“Just the ones that are flammable.”

Perry shook her head at that, hoping her friend would see reason. 

“Because  _ only nutbars  _ make plans to set people on fire without proof of anything.  _ Does Salem ring a bell?” _

Danny heard the frustrated sigh LaF was holding back. 

“We have plenty of proof. Do you want to put some  _ soy milk  _ into my cocoa? I’m  _ feeling a little anemic. _ ”

Laura moved to stop the burgeoning fight. 

“No, she’s right… Perry. Even if we can turn Carmilla into a vampire bonfire, we still wouldn’t be able to figure out what she’s done with Betty or the missing girls. We don’t need her dead… or, deader. We need her trapped. We need a way to get some answers.”

As much as Danny wanted the vampire that was flirting with  _ her  _ Laura, she knew the mission to protect the freshman went hand-in-hand with solving the disappearances.

“Okay, so how do we trap a vampire?”

LaFontaine sheepishly looked to Danny.

“Well, I have an idea… but you are not gonna like it.”

“What?”

“Well, we use something she wants to lure into a rope net or a room full of garlic. We’ll have to figure out that second part…”

“Okay, so what do you… what do we use as bait in this case?”

“Well, uh… Laura.”

“What?!” Danny turns to Laura. “Laura, you  _ cannot  _ be coffin bait.”

Laura looks up at the tall redhead in annoyance. 

“But it would work! She seems to have an interest in me, and-”

“-out of the question! We don’t know if she can hypnotize you, or what all powers she may have.”

LaFontaine moved between the pair of them. 

“Lawrence, if I had a better idea, I’d share that instead.”

Danny’s throat clenched up as stress went through her.

“What about her schedule? Follow her to class?”

“She doesn’t go to class regularly.”

“How about we set a trap? Have the Summer Society out in force to take her down.”

Laura perked up at that.

“Yeah, there’s bound to be some party I can lure her to, and… um… we can capture Carmilla there.”

“You’re asking me to  _ trust Carmilla  _ into walking into a trap with you?”

Laura shrugged, her cute smile disarming Danny’s rising panic.

“She won’t think it’s a trap coming from me.”

LaF clapped their hands loudly, breaking the tension there.

“Okay, so we have a plan!” They look to the laptop. “That we just recorded for all of Silas to see.”

“She’s not watching the videos, particularly if Danny is in them.” Laura countered, “but I can edit out that last bit.” 

LaFontaine’s eyes went from Laura to Danny. “Carmilla doesn’t want to watch you with Danny... I wonder why…” they mutter sarcastically.

“So we’ll need to ambush her, and that means using stuff that doesn’t scream ‘this is a trap’, right?” Laura asks, holding up her stapler. Perry hands LaFontaine a spatula from the sink while she grabs a hanger for herself, looking to Danny with worry.

The Warrior of Artemis  _ (who will be armed with silver bullets in her Desert Eagle) _ huffed in annoyance as she realized how inept this group would be.

“Okay, explain to me again how  _ offering yourself as bait _ to your  **blood-sucking roommate** is not the  _ worst plan ever  _ devised by womankind!”   
  
Laura looks hurt as she faces Danny. 

“You think I’m excited about it? We’ve been following her for a week and we still have no idea how or where she’s taking these girls. And LaFontaine’s plan is the only one that we’ve got.”

“Well, the fact that a terrible plan is our only plan is not really a selling point.”

Perry cuts in, refusing to believe that vampires are real.

“I’m sorry. Are we still really talking about all of this as though a  _ vampire  _ is really more likely than, I dunno, just some guy putting something in girls’ drinks?”

LaFontaine agreed there.

“We don’t know she isn’t doing that too.”

Laura was tired of hearing their complaints.

“You guys know that I can hear you, right? Maybe instead of peanut gallery-ing you can help me figure out how we trap a vampire,” Laura pulls out a bag full of aerosol cans, “How do we feel about bear spray?”

LaFontaine looked impressed and scared at the tiny gay.

“Probably not. Side note: you planning on invading a bear sanctuary?”

Laura shrugged.

“My dad’s really into personal protection”

“I can see that.”

“Ugggh, this is not working. I don’t see how we’re gonna do this-”

“Good!” Danny interjected, hoping that Laura would ditch this plan for a better one. “I-”

“-without an army. And I don’t have an army in my back pocket, do you?”

_ Perhaps the Summer Society can work with the Alchemists… _

Kirsch barges through the door, knocking almost as an afterthought. Since the last skirmish, the Zetas and the Summer Society have been in a state of cold war with each other. Sarah Jane, Natalie, and the Zeta senior that kept causing trouble followed behind him.

“Hey, Laura. Laura’s friends,” He looks to Danny, jaw set defiantly, “Psycho society. We came to invite you to the Peace Augsburg Luau that’s happening tomorrow night, because, you know, peace was, after all, your idea. And, uh, hey, maybe we can talk a bit about the, uh, the pod people stuff? Because this isn’t pre-party drinking anymore. She’s been like this all week. Which is cool, but, uh, you know, there’s only so much top 40 a dude can take.”

Laura’s eyes lit up at that.

_ Laura, no… _

“Yeah, about that. If we were to try to catch the… person responsible for taking the girls, uh, would the Zetas want in on that?”

“Do you think you know who’s behind it?” The Zeta  _ (Will, maybe?) _ asked, seeming a bit nervous.

Kirsch jumped at the offer like an excited puppy.

“Oh, we totally want in. We’re honor-bound to pound that guy.”

Danny raised an eyebrow at that, making her reconsider her assumption that he was exclusively hetero.

Will scoffed at that.

“Dude, ‘pound that guy’, really?”

Laura took that into consideration, much to Danny’s disapproval.

“And how many of you are there, again?”

Danny spoke up as she sent a quick text to warn Roman and Watts about Laura’s plan.

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea-”

“-we’re going to need all the help we can get, okay?”

Danny looked back down at her phone for the response.

**_Understood. Contact Alchemy Club for assistance and to work as a buffer if needed._ **

“Yeah, whatever, Laura. I’ve got some calls to make.” Danny huffed in frustration, making her way towards the door to Laura’s cramped dorm room.

Will’s eyes were cold and calculated as he purposefully stood in her way, sniffing her.

“You’re unlike the rest of the Sisterhood, Lawrence. You got balls.”

_ Did he know? Was this a threat? _

Danny swallowed down the moment of visceral fear, covering it up with a raised chin and shouldering past him.

“More than you have, Will.”


	8. An Uneasy Alliance

Danny was in place at the Peace Ausburg Luau, making idle conversation with Sam while Alan, Jessie, and Sarah were attempting to set up a ward that would alert them of any approaching vampires. Danny was a bit surprised to see Sarah up and about after the attack by the black panther, yet proud to see her Sister apprenticing in spellcraft and helping in tonight’s mission.

“Think it’s going to work?” Sam asked, standing a bit too straight due to the 31” Mossberg strapped to her back, the knee-length jacket barely covering it.

“Never seen Jessie’s magic work with Alchemy, but it should in theory.” Danny replied, seeing the frustration on Alan’s face as his device kept going off and had to reset the sensitivity.

Mel walked by, rolling her eyes as Kirsch followed in her wake, looking too much like an excited puppy with a pineapple-topped drink in his hand.

“I’m SO stoked that we’re going to catch this bad guy together! We’re like that strike team on _The Shield!_ ”

Mel paused, turning to face the Zeta and almost getting knocked over by him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’re like the cool and tough leader Vic Mackey, and I’m the team rookie Terry Crowley!”

Mel scoffed at that. “He gets shot in the face!”

Kirsch rocks back, shocked. “Dude, spoilers!”

“That was _literally_ the pilot episode. Aired in 2002!” Mel said, exasperated. “Come on, Bro-for-Brains.”

Danny nodded over to the party entrance, where ID’s were being checked to prohibit underage drinking. Roman and Watts were in full ceremonial attire and were openly carrying the Sword and Bow of Artemis, chatting with the Zeta Leader carrying an ornate Trident.

“At least our Huntress is getting along with the Zeta Pres- _Is that Will?_ ”

Sam nodded, frowning. “The President didn’t feel like coming out so that’s the VP. And there’s Christoph, the _Master Alchemist_ of the chapter.” Danny could hear the eye-rolling in her voice.

“What’s his story?” Danny asked, nodding at the red hooded cloak with the Alchemy Club Sigil on the back. The Sigil was supposedly a transmutation circle, a circle containing a hexagon and a diamond, with a square inside of that. Danny thought it looked only mildly ridiculous, though the stitching seemed to crackle with energy as Jesse and Alan tried to activate the warding device.

“Staged a coup of the Alchemists last year in an effort to clean up their reputation-”

“-yeah, the press-ganging of test subjects in the cafeteria?”

Sam nodded. “That’s the guy.”

“So, he’s good then?”

“Nah, he gives off a real creepy vibe to Jessie. Also sells Brimstone on the side.”

Danny shuddered at that, remembering the few times she saw students lighting up the translucent lava-colored rocks in glass pipes behind the library during finals week. It was the magical equivalent of meth, but smoked like crack would be.

“And he’s the President of their club? How has he not gotten busted and given a Tribunal?”

“No idea; my theory is that he’s transmuted them into brownies so campus security can’t find them.”

Danny shook her head at that, glad at least that the rest of the Alchemy Club seemed to be on the up and up as Sarah attempts to adjust the sensitivity on the warding device, the knob snapping off as it keeps ringing incessantly.

 _“Kill it, Jessie.”_ Danny mouthed the words silently while making the ‘cut it off’ signal with her hand. Jessie nodded sadly, lowering her dagger to let the ley-line energy wash out of the now defunct contraption.

Alan shrugged an apology as Danny checked the time on her cell phone.

_Laura and Carmilla should have already come down by now._

“Sam, hold our position; I’m going to go check on Laura.” Danny muttered, texting a quick ‘ _where are you?’_ to Laura.

“Where are you going, Lawrence?” Huntress Watts asked, stopping the tall ginger mid-step.

Danny looked between her, Huntress Roman, Master Alchemist Christoph, and the Zeta VP Will before responding.

“Uh… Laura’s taking too long to spring the trap.”

Roman nodded in understanding. “Call if you need backup.”

Will shrugged at that. “I’ll go with you.”

Danny felt like she was put on the spot.

“Um, sure. Thanks.”

“Sure. I mean, after that snafu with the Swim Team, it’s the least I can do. What was that thing that attacked Sarah?”

“Some giant black panther or something. Mel set it on fire.”

Watts looked at them in confusion, shaking her head.

“It was black? I could have sworn it was… well, it happened so fast. But the smell was familiar - before it vanished.”

Will whistled and a Zeta was there in an instant, taking the ceremonial trident with military poise.

“Try not to burn down the campus while I’m gone, bro.” Will said, turning towards Danny.

“Lead the way, Lawrence.”

* * *

Danny’s pulse beat heavily in her throat as she made her way to Laura’s dorm room, trying to ignore the panic of being outed by Will _(if he even knew she was trans)_ with the rising panic that she had left _her_ Laura alone with the vampire Carmilla.

Danny did her best to not think of Laura as hers, but the cute blonde was her charge to protect.

“Hey guys,” Kirsch said, panting as he finished his drink, “wait up! Where are we going?”

“I’m checking on Laura.” Danny replied, not slowing down one step, seeing the whole plan they made with anti-vampire warding device go up in smoke.

“You think Laura’s behind the kidnappings? I know her, and she doesn’t seem the type.”

“No,” Danny shook her head at that, “she was the bait for the kidnapper.”

“Badass! Oh, we're so going to wail on that dude. COME ON ME, BRO!”

Danny didn't have the heart to correct him as she held back a laugh.

Will seemed less amused.

“That's not how you say... actually, go ahead with that.”

Danny made her way into the dorm and up the stairs, glad that Laura never locks her door. Shoving it open, jealousy and fury collide as the Warrior of Artemis sees Carmilla being way too close and comfortable as the vampire actually gets up and moves to block Danny from her Laura.

“ **YOU!** _GET AWAY FROM HER!_ ” Danny said as she forgot all of her training and just rushed her, leaving Will and Kirsch behind. Danny had the vampire pinned on the bed for only a second before Carmilla punched her in the left eye, knocking her back as the the vampire made a second strike with preternatural speed and power directly into the tall redhead’s solar plexus, leaving Danny gasping and unable to breathe upon Laura’s bed.

There was a blur of punches and shoving as LaFontaine and Perry ran past a surprised Kirsch who muttered something about bro code forbidding attacking hotties. The vampire ran for the door, getting stopped by a smirking Will who sucker-punched her in the nose, breaking it and bleeding freely.

_Holy crap, he’s fast._

Will's attacks on Carmilla were faster than anything Danny had seen before as Carmilla lunged toward his neck and threatened to tell the Dean.

It apparently distracted Will enough as Carmilla attempted to put him in a chokehold, lunging into his neck. Will windmilled his arms to free himself as Carmilla took the opportunity and punched with must have been vampire strength, missing his jaw but slamming deep into his collar bone, crunching as if broken.

As Will fell back, Laura and LaFontaine moved in to attack her with bear spray and a garlic wreath. While the can aerosolized, Carmilla took a wild swing at it, knocking down the canister and shoving the mad scientist to fall backwards, hitting the back of their head on a table as they collapsed onto the floor.

The vampire screamed in pain as she tried to blink the chemical burn out of her eyes, staring down Laura with feral rage.

Danny was just out of reach and was coughing and gasping just to breathe, unable to even yell for help.

_FUCK! Carmilla was going to kill Laura!_

The Vampire’s fangs were out and she shook in rage, growling as she had a hand on either of Laura’s shoulders,

“Do it. _Prove you're a monster!_ ” Laura snarled, knowing she was unable to put up a fight against her.

Danny’s heart sank as she knew she had failed her mission, even as she struggled to get up and fought for air.

**_By Artemis, I won’t let you hurt her!_ **

Except that Carmilla didn’t bite Laura. The vampire froze there just long enough for Will to wrench the vampire to the ground, taking a little too much glee in kicking her once she was down before throwing her into a chair where LaFontaine was ready with rope, tying the knots with a dark chuckle.

“Are you sure this is actually working?” Perry asked, tapping one of the garlic bulbs on the necklace she put on Carmilla.

Danny was finally pulling long, shuddering breaths as the pulled on the rope to test the tensile strength.

“She's not putting up a fight.” Danny reasoned, sitting on Laura’s bed and touching the black eye that was quickly forming. _No special protection from war paint tonight_.

As Laura setup for laptop to resume recording, Will left the room muttering about going back to the party.

“And these knots will actually tighten if she struggles. Circulation isn’t a problem with the undead, right?” LaF asked.

Danny couldn't help but be curious.

“How did you know how to tie knots like that?”

The genderqueer scientist looked to Perry.

_“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”_

* * *

Danny poked at her blossoming black eye, just having texted Watts that they had indeed captured the vampire in question and playing around with a cross made from a wooden spatula lashed to a plastic recorder.

_These idiots are lucky that they didn’t get themselves killed._

LaFontaine and Perry were both tending to the bump on the back of their head, while Laura struck a victorious pose standing behind what looked like a thoroughly humiliated Carmilla.

“Vampire **captured!** Even though I was unable to text for help, in an _unbelievably lucky_ series of events, Danny got worried about my crazed plan and came to check on me,” Laura turns towards her, “Thanks. How’s your eye?”

LaF nodded to the camera with pride as Perry came over with an ice pack.

Danny nodded in thanks, seeing that same spark in Laura’s eyes from the Town Hall.

“It’s better now that you’re safe.”

LaFontaine spoke up, attempting to forestall the puppy-dog glances that they would be giving to each other.

“Also, I got my head smashed into a table, if anyone cares. And I’m pretty sure that Zeta guy, Will, has a fractured clavicle.”

Danny wondered about that, too.

“I can’t believe he went back to the party.”

Laura, of course, was too busy reveling in her victory to care.

“Bumps and bruises and the _dubious legality_ of holding someone hostage in their own room aside, I think this is cause for a little celebration. Guys, **we did it!** And now that her reign of _terror and flirting_ is over, we’ll unpod SJ and Natalie, we’ll find Betty and-”

A sudden scream startled Laura into silence, looking to the door and back at the blonde reporter.

“What was that? We caught her _fair and square!_ There is not allowed to be some _new_ horrible thing!”

Kirsch rushes into the room, obviously panicked.

“ **Laura!** You gotta come quick! It’s SJ and Natalie! I think someone’s trying to take them. I can’t find Natalie and I think SJ’s… _I think she’s dead!”_


	9. The Opposite of Love is not Hate

Danny and LaFontaine searched Natalie’s room, finding the same multiple choice card notice about leaving the school as the scientist took samples of a strange sludge found on her pillow.

“That looks disgusting.” Danny held back from retching as LaF scooped it into a petri dish and labeled it.

“Yeah, but it’s a clue. Laura cleaned her room before I could get a sample from Betty’s disappearance.”

Danny checked the calendar and went back a few weeks. It went from study sessions and calling her mother on the weekends to “PARTY!!!” every night.

“Looks like Natalie’s schedule reflects getting pod-peopled.”

LaF shook their head. “That isn’t a concise term. From what I observed, it’s more like they got re-programmed. If the human mind were analogous to a computer.”

Danny chuckled at that. 

“I like the analogy, though; growing up my dad kept putting me into martial arts and sports, bragging about how I’d be a big, strong man someday-” She looked to her genderqueer friend. “-um-”

LaFontaine smiled back. 

“It’s cool. Being non-cis myself, I think I have a +2 on my trans-dar. Now if only my gay-dar and queer-dar worked.”

Danny frowned at that.

“I thought you and Perry were…”

LaFontaine’s smile became forced. 

“No. I’ve always been her best friend, and now I’m her ‘concern’.”

“She’s not taking the transition well?”

LaF scoffed at that. 

“You could say that. Apparently everyone and everything has its place, in her mind. My  _ existence  _ apparently is a walking paradox to everything that she can accept. And this is on top of Silas being weird central.”

Danny nodded in understanding, wrapping up the search. 

“Let’s go check SJ’s room.” 

As the pair of them went down the hall to the other room, Danny’s curiosity got the better of her.

“Hey so… um, about me being trans… does-”

“-Laura know? She has absolutely no clue, Lawrence. You pass really well.”

Danny was both comforted and conflicted at this.

“Good, but… I do? I mean, I get nothing but hell from a few of the Summer Society-”

“Put enough people into a group, let them groupthink into a team identity, and watch them tear each other to shreds for no real reason. People  _ are dumb _ in large groups.” They got to the door and LaF used Perry’s master key to unlock it. “Which explains politics, when you think about it.”

As they went in, the room looked equally disastrous. There was a photo of her and Kirsch on her wall, covering a periodic table where she was undoubtedly studying for Chem 101.

“Sarah Jane quit cleaning it seems.”

There were empty boxes of wine coolers as well as empty smirnoff bottles filling her trash can, spilling over into what was an attempt to make a neat stack nearby.

Danny checked the laptop, seeing incomplete essays abandoned that were due weeks ago.

“She quit doing everything.”

LaFontaine checked the pillow without any luck, and put on a pair of polypropylene gloves and began so sort through her laundry basket.

“Oh, this is gro-” they winced, building their resolve, “...how you do science. I’m doing science…” They grimaced as they found a pillowcase caked in the same viscous fluid that the other kidnap victims had.

Danny frowned at that as well. 

“Her roommate must have changed her sheets. I sure would.”

Danny scoured the desk and finally found the multiple-choice card as the scientist bagged the pillowcase to test the dried fluid on it.

“Found it! Let’s go tell Laura.” Danny found herself stopped at the doorway by a nervous looking LaFontaine.

“Hey, Danny… about Laura-”

“Yeah, I should disclose that I’m trans.”

They frowned at that, pulling off their gloves with an audible snap as they tossed them into the trash.

“Disclosing is totally up to you and I’m not gonna judge. I was going to say that I’m sorry all of her attention is focused on Carmilla and not towards the slow burn between the two of you.”

Danny smiled sadly at that, before letting out a forced chuckle. 

“Oh, you think that because Laura has been on a tear to get Carmilla followed and captured to prove that she’s guilty, that she’s somehow going to crush on her undead roommate or something?”

Danny expected LaFontaine to laugh, or be let in on the joke, but the moment didn’t come.

“Well…”

“No, that’s ridiculous! There’s  _ no way _ Laura is going to fall for vampirella’s  _ seduction eye _ trick.”

LaFontaine shrugged as they lead the way out of the room, apologizing.

“The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.”

Danny felt words like a punch in the gut.

“And she’s been pretty indifferent about me lately.”

LaF nodded sadly.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think she would have held you being trans against you. She did seem to like you before, but… the weird at Silas got in the way.”

Danny nodded, keeping her emotions bottled up.

_ I’ve got my job to protect her and to figure out who is behind the kidnappings. _

“Well, maybe when all of this gets resolved…” Danny mutters as the pair of them go back upstairs to Laura’s room.

“That would be nice; I used to find it annoying when all she would do was talk about you. Now her life kind of revolves around Carmilla and finding Betty.”

The redhead stopped in the middle of the hallway, shoulders slumping in apparent defeat.

“LaF… how do you deal?”

“Deal with what?”

“You see Perry everyday, and for some reason, she can’t see you.”

The scientist shrugs it off. 

“She’s learning to use my preferred name and pronouns-”

“-not that. I get you’re ace, but still… it’s gotta hurt to be in love with your best friend and they can’t even see it.”

LaFontaine nodded, turning away from Danny so she couldn’t see their eyes begin to well up.

“She is convinced she needs normal, and to her that means cisgender. I have no idea what Perry’s actual orientation is; she’s probably aromantic on top of everything and convincing herself she’s just really into her studies.”

“That has to be tough,” Danny said, reaching a hand out to hug them, but pulling it back in. 

“Yeah,” LaFontaine took a deep breath, centering themselves. “Just gotta focus on the mission, right?”

As the pair of them approached Laura’s door, they recomposed themselves and gave each other a knowing nod, and went in.

Laura was talking to the webcam, judging from the video feed on the screen.

“I don’t understand. We caught her. This shouldn’t be happening. Natalie shouldn’t be missing and Sarah Jane shouldn’t be-”

Danny didn’t want her dwelling on that, as despair could creep in and destroy the progress done so far.

“-well, you were right.  These stupid cards were in both their dorms.”

LaFontaine understood what the tall redhead was doing, and added more details in hopes to distract the blonde.

“And I took a bunch of samples. We’ll figure out what the sludge is.”

Danny started piecing the data together, and maybe it would help ease Laura’s conscience. 

“It looks like the plan was to take both of them, so maybe what happened to Sarah Jane was an accident.”

Kirsch had a thousand-yard stare etched in his face. He was going to see this in his dreams for years to come.

“She fell.”

Laura turned to him, surprised to hear the Zeta finally speak up.

“What?”

“After leaving your room ‘cause the Bro Code says not to hit a hottie, we were all watching the fire from the third floor balcony.  And then… and she kept asking me to go to the party, and- and I kept telling her, babe,  _ we’re at the party,  _ and then... and then we noticed Natalie went missing, and- and everyone went to look for her. Except SJ, because, well, I was worried about her, so I told her to stay put, and I locked the door, and she should’ve been safe. And then we heard her scream, and they,  _ they must’ve tried to _ … take her, and then she must’ve fallen.” He faced Carmilla, distraught. “Hey, why’d you do that to her, huh?”  

Kirsh grabbed the vampire by the shoulders, shaking her in desperate misplaced rage. “WHAT DID SHE EVER DO TO YOU?!”

Danny grabbed the Zeta, understanding how heartbroken she would be if it had been her Laura.

“She wasn’t there, okay?  _ She wasn’t there.” _

As if coming to his senses, Kirsch hugged Danny, making her gulp at the intensity of the moment.

“Thanks, Summer psycho. I’m gonna … you know, at times like these a dude needs to be with his bros.”

Kirsch runs from the room, and Danny couldn’t help but feel touched by the depth of the tall puppy’s emotions. She always remembered how “Boys Don’t Cry” was beat into her mind growing up, and Kirsch, as misguided as he might be about treating women, was one of the least toxic men she’s gotten to know.

_ I wish I had an example of not being burdened with toxic masculinity growing up like him. _

Laura was back in despair mode.

“Oh, my gosh. This is such a mess. What are we gonna do now?”

Danny thinks about it, closes the door, and locks it. Carmilla coughs, probably to get attention. Laura looks over at her while Perry sits down on Carmilla’s bed.

“Oh, crap.”

“Yep.  That is a dilemma.” LaFontaine adds.

Laura frowns at that.

“This day just keeps getting better and better.”

Laura looks over at Perry, hoping she’ll have an idea.

“Well, don’t look at me. I didn’t want to kidnap anyone to begin with!”

Danny tried to consider the ramifications of kidnapping. “Well, we can’t just let her go! She still might be involved.”

LaFontaine nodded in agreement.

“Also, and I’m just throwing this out there, but it took, like, eight people to subdue her and she seems kinda angry.”

Laura agreed. “Right. Definitely not untying angry vampire.”

Perry finally blew a fuse at the sheer unnaturalness of the situation.

“You can’t just keep a hostage in your dorm room, Laura! I mean, I know this is Silas, but somebody is bound to notice if you keep a girl  _ trussed up in here  _ for God knows how long.”

LaFontaine smirked, and Danny could see something wicked lurking behind their eyes.

“You really think that, huh? I could take her to the bio lab. I’m sure there’s all sorts of things we could figure out through some minimally-invasive probing…” Both Laura and Perry look at them in soft horror. “...or a voluntary questionnaire.”

Danny didn’t want to disclose the werewolf-proof cage they had commissioned back when Jia first contracted lycanthropy and needed to be locked away for the first few shifts until they were able to control their bloodlust, but it might be the only place that can contain a vampire.

“We could take her to the Summer Society department. There’s a storage room in the back…”

_ Department? Storage room?  _ Danny knew she was terrible at lying, but nobody seemed focused on the details.

Laura was,  _ of course, _ going to be stubborn.

“No! She’s our only lead. She stays  _ exactly  _ where she is until she tells us what’s going on and how she’s involved. If we get caught, you guys can just blame me. Worst thing they can do is expel me, and by comparison that’s not seeming so dire.”

LaFontaine did a double take in her direction. 

“It’ll seem dire once they start your tribunal.”

Laura looked back that them in confusion. 

“My what now?”

Perry frowned at the exchange, looking to Laura.

“You really need to read your student handbook.”

Laura brushed the comment away like an errant thought.

“Okay, no, focus.” She waves for everyone to huddle in, and Perry covers Carmilla’s ears as if vampires don’t have super hearing. “If we’re gonna break her, we need to girl the hell up. United front. No mercy.  Am I right?”

Danny and LaFontaine nod as Danny realizes that same odd gleam in LaFontaine’s eyes.  _ Pretty certain they are some sort of kinky sadist. _ Perry looks unsure.  Laura stares at Perry until she also reluctantly nods, moving her hands off of Carmilla’s ears.

“Okay,”  Laura says, clearing her throat, “Alright, vampire. We know that you’ve been stalking those girls and we know that…  _ you’re a vampire! _ So the sooner you ‘fess us and tell us what’s going on, the better this is gonna go for you because we have got…  _ a spatula, and a stapler, and we are not afraid to use them, _ so you better start singin’!”

LaFontaine didn’t want to interrupt the tough girl act, but noticed a flaw in the plan.

“Uh, Laura, she’s still got the…” They point to the duct tape over the vampire’s mouth.

Laura is surprised that she didn’t notice it. 

“Oh, right,” She squares her shoulders to look more menacing. “Uh, maybe this will get you talking,” Laura rips the tape off, “So, spill! How did two more girls end up kidnapped and murdered when we’ve got you tied up here?”

Carmilla looks annoyed as she stretches her lips, trying to not wince from the pain of the tape removal. 

“Because I didn’t do it,  **_you dimwits_ ** _.” _

Laura scoffed at the vampire.

“You cannot seriously think we’re dumb enough to believe you’re innocent just because you say so.”

“Yeah, cause that seems like a stretch. Look, if I were really a vampire, would I just stay here, tied up, proclaiming my innocence as some sort of trick?”

Danny looked at Carmilla and was almost convinced that she  _ wasn’t _ a vampire.  _ Except for her speed and strength when they had captured her. _

“Yeah.  That’s completely exactly what a vampire would do. We have, like, forty hours of video documentation. Bet you wish you’d watched my project now, hunh?”

_ LaFontaine was right. Laura  _ **_is_ ** _ obsessed with Carmilla, and wants her attention. _ Danny’s stomach roiled at the thought.

“Fine.  _ So I’m a vampire.  _ But I couldn’t’ve made off with either of the two cupcakes because I was here with you, and then I was here  _ being ambushed by toddlers  _ the whole time.”

Laura backpedaled, doubt creeping into her voice.

“Well, maybe you have some kind of…  _ vampiric accomplice!” _

_ “Do I strike you as the type of person who plays well with others?” _

“Well... if you weren’t snacking on coeds, what were you doing following them around at parties?”

“I’m a popular girl. I get a lot of invitations. Not everyone has to resort to  _ bush-league investigative journalism to get their kicks.” _

Laura huffed at that, the insinuation stinging more than it should.

“You’re a  **_vampire!_ ** ”

“Yeah, but  **not** a kidnapper!”

LaFontaine saw the interaction and how Danny was trying to keep a straight face, and interrupted the bickering.

“She’s got us there. Assuming she’s up to something diabolical just because she’s-”

“An  _ undead fiend  _ from the  **pits of Hell?** ”

“ _ I’m from Eastern Europe… _ po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”

A knock at the door breaks the tension, and Danny is able to breathe again. Perry and LaFontaine run to answer it, blocking the view into the room.

LaFontaine sees some guys with beer, asking if everything was okay due to the shouting about a vampire.

“Oh, hey! Yeah, we’re actually good for beer shots right now. But thanks for thinking of us.”

Perry was thinking on her feet as she spun a tale about rehearsing a skit.

“What? No. Uh, we’re rehearsing a skit. Uh, yeah, the torture scene from Arsenic and Old Lace. Mmm-hmm, yeah, there’s a torture scene. Want more info? Buy tickets.”

JP closes the door as Perry recomposes herself to address the room.

“Okay. As much as I appreciate that we have this whole  _ hysterical vampire thing  _ going on, I think it’s time that we just de-escalate…”

Laura chuffed at that.

“De-escalate? She just  _ admitted  _ to being a  **vampire!** ”

“I know.  _ And that’s insane.  _ So, maybe she’s just insane and instead of holding her here  _ hostage _ , we should take her to student health services. I hear they have a great collection of straight jackets and tranquilizers.” She looks at the blank faces in the room. “Well, what other option do we have? Keep her here tied up, watching her every second? Starving her until she confesses?”

Laura turns off the web camera, mulling over the idea of illegally detaining and starving someone to make them break.

“I don’t want there to be video of us discussing what torture methods will get her to talk faster.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Carmilla asks.

“NO.” Danny snaps, getting a fearful look from Laura. “I mean, don’t make us tape your mouth shut again.”

Danny felt chastised from that single look, and knew in that moment that while Laura might still hate Carmilla, that the tiny gay was indifferent to the Warrior of Artemis.

“Studies have shown that while torture like stress positions and sleep deprivation can break someone in time, they will more than likely tell you what they think you want to hear instead of the truth,” LaFontaine added to the conversation. “And uh, I don’t think I can beat someone tied up and helpless.” 

“But she’s  _ not _ helpless. She’s a  **vampire** .”

Danny’s voice felt small as she never thought she’d be having this conversation. 

“I can… I can ask for a taser from one of the Summer Society Sisters.”

As Laura gave a cold glare to Carmilla, the vampire whimpered at that.

_ Carmilla is scared of electricity. _

Danny saw Laura’s face soften at the whimper, and she was relieved to see that her crush wasn’t as heartless as the vampire that they had captured.

“Okay, let’s go with… fasting. Yeah. I think that’s the best idea we have.” Perry said as everyone nodded in agreement.

Laura’s stomach rumbled.

“Speaking of starving, I need to get dinner.”

Danny smiled to her.

“Go, I got first watch.”

LaFontaine spoke up as well.

“I can go grab some blood bags from the bio department or something and join you.”

Danny nodded in understanding. 

“Thanks.”

Perry patted Laura on the shoulder gently and walked her to the closet. 

“Okay Laura, let’s get you into something from this decade and pop down to the cafeteria.”

Once Laura changed her top (that Danny tried and failed to look away from) the three of them left the room, leaving Carmilla alone with Danny.

“You smell different than the other girls, Lawrence. In fact, I think they are all cycling together while you... don’t.”

“Do you want the duct tape again?”

“Is that why you can’t  _ seal the deal _ with Lois Lane, ... **_Clark_ ** ?”

“Laura might have qualms over torturing you,  **_but I don’t_ ** .”

Danny pressed the barrel of her Desert Eagle to the vampire’s kneecap. 

“Fifty caliber, silver rounds. One squeeze of my trigger and  _ you won’t have a leg left _ .”

Terror was etched in the vampire’s face before she recomposed herself to look cool and aloof.

“Okay, that’s worse than being buried alive and starved for decades.” Carmilla turned her face away from the redhead.

“Save your sob story for Laura. I don’t care.”


	10. Zero Spoons

At the Summer House, Danny laid on her bed, the Desert Eagle locked away in her gun safe.  She knew better than to do that; you’re only supposed to pull out your gun if you intend to shoot to kill. 

_ Not to put terror into someone _ .

The tall Warrior of Artemis hated herself for how she overreacted, idly wondering if what she had done would be considered a war crime in other circumstances. 

_ Calmly discussing what kind of torture would make a vampire talk isn’t exactly heroine material, either. _

Danny knew she was a good person, but in that moment, she wasn’t. She thought back to that moment when she pressed her gun against the vamp-  _ Carmilla’s _ \- knees. 

She realized the reductive nature of only calling it a vampire instead of by name.  _ Carmilla is a person, not just some creature to be put down. _ It made her wonder about Laura, who seemed a little too obsessed and gung-ho to capture ‘the vampire’ and prove she was behind it all.

Maybe LaFontaine was right and it was speciesist. She didn’t think she was prejudiced against non-humans, (something she never would have even considered before coming to Silas, to be honest) but she knew deep down that this wasn’t just about protecting Laura.

_ Her assignment for the Sisterhood. _

That was another insurmountable problem she faced. She wasn’t any closer to finding Elsie, and too much of her mind was focused on being jealous about Laura and Carmilla instead. 

_ This is a pity party and you know it, Lawrence. _

She was startled by a knock at her door.

“Lawrence? It’s Roman.”

“Come in.” Danny replied, staring at the ceiling.

“You okay, Danny? You’ve been like this for a week.”

“Am I okay?” the redhead scoffed at that. “No, not really.” 

The Second Huntress sat at the foot of her bed.

“Problem with your mission?”

Danny huffed at that, looking away from Cera and staring at a blank spot on the wall.

“You could say that. We captured Carmilla, Sarah Jane fell to her death, and while I’m in love with Laura, she’s indifferent to me. And in some weird-ass love/hate thing with the vampire.”

Cera sucked air in between clenched teeth in sympathy.

“Oh, that’s gotta hurt.”

“You’re telling me. I lost it while guarding the vamp- Carmilla. I lost my temper with Carmilla.”

“What happened?”

Danny laughed bitterly at that.

“I, uh, pulled my gun and threatened to kneecap her. I saw terror flash across her face before she went all cool and collected. It was eerie how fast she flipped that switch.”

“What did she say?”

“Something about how being buried alive and starved for decades, and I mentioned that I didn’t care about her sob story.”

Cera nodded at that. “Survivors of abuse learn how to not upset others.”

_ Oh, fuck…  _ Danny should have noticed that when it happened last week.

“Well, she’s still a grade A bitch. Actually goaded me to either pull the trigger or put away my gun. Haven’t been back since. Laura’s trying to starve the vampire into talking; she’ll text when she has something.”

Danny missed the look that the Second Huntress shot her.

“Any progress on finding Elsie? Her Second, Sarah, wanted me to ask about her.”

Danny hadn’t even thought about how the sister’s little/mentee would be dealing with everything.

“No. We need Carmilla to tell us what she knows.”

Danny’s cell phone beeps, a text from Laura flashes on the screen. She clenches her jaw as she reads it.

“Oh Gods.”

“What’s up?”

Danny clicks her tongue, knowing that her voice is going to sound bitchy. She doesn’t care.

“Laura says  _ Carmilla isn’t the big bad _ we thought she was. She’s just a minion on the outs with the real villain.”

_ Laura is definitely becoming smitten with her. Fuck. _

“So who is it?”

Another text rolls in, making her blood run cold.

“The Dean. She wants me over there to talk about it.”

Roman stands up at that, looking as if the knowledge has winded her. 

“I gotta inform the officers.” She looks at Danny. “Do you need someone else to take over your role?”

Danny shook her head.

“No; there’s no way to explain it away and we already have a rapport…” Danny sighed, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought, “but if the Dean is in on it, then that means the Board has to be as well.”

“The Bundespolizei as well as the faculty here won’t help us at all? Artemis help us.”

* * *

Laura rehashes Carmilla’s backstory to the group, after asking everyone to refrain from interjecting until she finished. Danny huffs as she sits on Laura’s bed and rolled a wooden stake between her hands, attempting to burn off the jealous feelings while leaving her Desert Eagle in her gun safe.

Danny was grateful that none of them knew about her brandishing her pistol at Carmilla, and hoped that the vampire would keep it that way.

When Danny noticed the cup of blood duct-taped to Carmilla, complete with a straw for her to drink from, the Warrior of Artemis felt jealousy flood through her veins like fire. LaFontaine didn’t miss it either, judging from the look they shot her.

Laura finished up her closing arguments on why Carmilla is a good vampire as Danny forced herself to not roll her eyes at it.

“So, in light of last night’s  _ many revelations _ , we are gathering to debate the  _ benefits  _ of releasing our vampire hostage, right?”

_ Oh no. Nope. Nope-nope-nope. _

“ _ Oh my God _ , Laura.  I don’t care how soppy her tale of  _ long-lost love  _ is, she just  _ confessed to centuries  _ of tricking girls into being her friend before... she ate them!”

“Fine, but, if her mother  _ really is  _ the Dean, then don’t we need all the help that we can get?”

Danny agreed with Laura, and had already rallied the Summer Society and the Alchemy Club for this. But a point must be made about Carmilla’s trustworthiness.

_ Particularly if the vampire decides to tell them about the incident with her Desert Eagle. _

**_“It’s not help if we can’t trust a word she says!”_ **

Laura looks back at LaFontaine, looking for help to convince Danny.

LaFontaine shook their head at her.

“Sorry, L, not on board with untying someone who many eat me.”

“Perry? You didn’t even wanna trap her in the first place!”

Perry shook her head in panic.

“Have you been listening to what she’s been saying? We kidnapped  _ the Dean’s daughter _ . We can’t just let her go now. Sorry, Carmilla.”

Carmilla shrugged it off.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. If you guys wanna go after my mother, I’m fine here,” she turns to the  laptop, “...’Vampires don’t cry?’... That’s almost as bad as that sparkly twerp.”

Danny couldn’t keep the comment from coming out.

“Yep. Clearly, we’re lost without her.”

Laura rolled her eyes at that.

“Fine. But what are we gonna do about the Dean?”

Laura turned off the camera, frustrated. 

“Probably not going to use the recap footage and just use Carmilla telling it with my puppet theatre.”

LaFontaine tilted their head at that. 

“Yeah, about that… why do you have a-”

“-sock puppets are quick and easy.” Laura hedged.

“Not that,” LaF tried to keep a straight face, “the full puppet stage?”

Danny winced at that. 

“That was my fault; I asked my students to do a presentation on one of the themes in  _ Beowulf _ and Laura here went the extra mile.”

_ No doubt in order to impress a certain tall, redhead English Lit TA. _

The awkward tension in the room built up as Carmilla did her best to turn her face away from the slow burn turned slow burnout between Laura and Danny, finishing the blood in her cup with a loud straw-slurping sound.

Laura popped up immediately from her chair to get Carmilla a refill, glad to have a distraction.

“And that’s my cue-” Danny got up and left Laura’s room, only getting a few paces down the hall before a hand grabbed her arm, turning the redhead around with the wooden stake at the ready.

“It’s Laura; don’t stake please!” She says in a panic, making Danny frown and stuff the wooden weapon into her back pocket.

“Sorry, instinct.” Danny apologized as she looked down into the large brown eyes of the girl she loved and lost. “What do you want?”

Their faces were too close as Laura’s head was tilted back, and Danny’s eyes were locked onto how the tiny gay bit her lip nervously. 

_ It would be a much cuter moment if she wasn’t holding a bag of O positive. _

“I, uh… are we okay?”

Danny ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

“Yeah, we…” Danny sighed, “I’m just dealing with a lot right now.” She felt an urge to lean in and kiss the top of Laura’s forehead to comfort her, but stopped herself.

Laura moved in and hugged her, surprising the Warrior of Artemis as Danny hugged her back, keeping her hips away from Laura and resting her chin on top of her head.

“I’m going to have to teach you to give better hugs, Danny.” Laura said, letting go. 

Danny backed away, clasping her hands in front of her to hide the automatic reaction that happened in her pants.

“Yeah, maybe when  _ I’m no longer your T.A… _ ”

“Right…” Laura said, blush crossing her cheeks.

Danny nodded towards the blood bag. 

“Go feed your roommate before her blood sugar crashes, or whatever...” 

Laura nodded, a smile on her lips that was probably more for Carm than Danny.

_ That seems much more intimate than it should be. _


	11. Danny's Charge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like the double meaning in the title chapter, as well as more of what's going on in Danny's head as she realizes what Carm has been up to.

Danny was leaving her office, finally delving into reading the literature papers on _Beowulf_ when something in the distance seemed to go by in a blur. She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Huntress Watts, hoping that whatever team was on patrol tonight could handle themselves.

_Pursue the supernaturally fast creature and maybe find it, or…_

Danny craned her head, trying to trace the direction it came from.

_The Dean? Another vampire?_

The tall Warrior of Artemis didn’t have time to guess, only to assume the worst case scenario, and started running for Laura’s room.

It wasn’t long before she came across the wild red curls of Laura’s floor don, Perry.

“DANNY!” she panted, bent at the hips and clutching her knees, “Laura-”

Danny couldn’t feel her legs as they seemed wobbly with adrenaline.

“IS SHE OKAY?!”

**_FUCK FUCK SHIT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE_ **

Perry shook her head, eyes wide in fear.

“I uh… I don’t know! I just… Carm… loose.”

Danny resumed running into the dorm and up the stairs, leaving Perry in her wake.

“IS THE DOOR UNLOCKED?” Danny yelled as she flew up the stairwell, three steps at a time.

“Yeah Laura never locks… Carmilla was un-”

Danny rounded the corner and couldn’t hear the floor Don as her heartbeat was in her ears. She made it to the doorway, shocked to see Carmilla untied and blood on Laura’s neck.

_Blood… Laura… NECK?!_

Perry caught up,  breathing heavily as she stood in the doorway.

“See? She’s loose. I told you she was loose!”

The Warrior of Artemis was running on instinct and adrenaline as she had her stake out and ready to kill the vampire before her. Carmilla wasn’t even looking Danny in the eye, which for some reason angered her all the more.

“You. _Me_. **Right now.** ”

As Danny tried to keep Laura in her peripheral vision, ensuring she wasn’t about to bleed out or anything, Carmilla reacted like a viper, slapping the stake out of her hand and grabbing her by the throat.

Danny realized that the vampire’s fingers were putting pressure on her carotid arteries rather than restrict her airflow.

 _Blood choking._ Danny could be knocked out within seconds if Carmilla wanted that to happen. She instinctively grappled Carmilla’s hand and wrist, trying to find a weak point but found none.

“I won’t let you hurt her…”

Danny was lifted off of the ground just enough to feel her toes barely touch the floor, telling her exactly how strong the angry vampire was.

Carmilla’s eyes showed more annoyance than anger, which only seemed to piss the tall ginger off more.

“Not to ruin your big heroic entrance, _Xena,_ but she’s not the one in trouble.”

“If you think that I can’t get-”

Carmilla’s hand flexed its strength, clawing around the trachea and windpipe to give the clear message _I can tear out your throat right now._

“I have been doing my very best to be patient about the ambush and the hostage-taking and the starvation diet, but I am having difficulty remembering why it is I haven’t _torn out your spine_!”

As Danny’s life flashed before her eyes, something struck her as odd.

_Carmilla has supernatural strength and reflexes._

She remembered when she believed Laura was in mortal peril with Carmilla and how she goaded the vampire to kill her.

**_Do it. Prove you're a monster!_ **

Carmilla wasn’t the type of predator that would hesitate to kill, and the rope wasn’t like the silver band that restrained the werewolf.

_She could have freed herself at any moment._

Laura’s voice faded in as the room went blurry before the redhead.

_Carmilla doesn’t want to be seen as a monster by Laura._

**I** _am the monster._

“No, don’t! Please don’t! **_Carmilla!_ ** ”

The vampire gives Laura an annoyed look.

_Carmilla willingly let herself get captured and tied up, and starved for over a week… just to prove she wasn’t a monster? Was that her angle?_

“Look, Danny’s sorry, and she’s not gonna try and kill you again, right? Danny?”

Danny half-registered her name was being said as she nodded, uncertain what had been said.

“Look, she’s nodding. That’s a nod.”

Carmilla rolls her eyes and releases Danny’s throat, dropping the redhead onto her feet. Danny gasped for air, more out of panic than being out of breath.

_Carmilla willingly starved herself for a week to not look like a monster to Laura… and was still willing to kill._

“Are you okay?” Laura asked Danny as LaFontaine moved to stand protectively by Perry near the doorway.

When Danny finally felt able to speak again, she wished it sounded more confident.

“I’m fine.  I was just… I was scared for you.”

“I know, but look! I’ve got everything under control.”

Carmilla flexes her fingers in irritation, trying with difficulty to not make fists.

_Laura really thinks she’s had this under control?!_

“Under control? Laura, you think **_this_ ** is under control? In the past two weeks, you have broken into the faculty club, you have _almost gotten killed_ at the Library, you have offered yourself up as _vampire bait_ , and- and now she’s loose, and you **have a bite on your neck**!”

Laura gulped at that.

“Okay, there are perfectly reasonable,” she turns to the camera, remembering that it was on, “reasons for all of that-”

“Oh, could you _stop_ playing to the **_cheap seats for all of five seconds?!_ ** ”

Perry takes LaFontaine’s hand in her own.

“Okay, so this is none of our business, so we’re just gonna go. Um, Carmilla?”

Carmilla smirks at the exchange, sitting down on her bed to watch the interaction between Laura and Danny. Perry and LaFontaine exit in a hurry, wanting to avoid the awkwardness.

Laura looks up to Danny.

“The filming that I do… it is part of something _important._ ”

Danny saw the earnest look on her face and didn’t want her to think otherwise.

“And I’m not saying it’s not. It’s just… you have to _call me_ before you’re-”

“Have to _call_ you? Because it’s, like, **_your job_ ** to keep me safe?”

Danny responded automatically, as it has been her assignment from the Sisterhood since Laura was investigating the disappearances.

“ **Yes!** ”

“What?”

_I love you, you idiot!_

“I _care_ about you! **Of course** it’s my job to _keep you safe_.”

Laura stood up, anger mixed with disappointment on her face.

“Well, I’m sorry that my making my own decisions and being reckless is making it _hard for you to do your job!_ ”

_Oh, shit._

Danny knew she fucked up and had to backtrack.

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Yes you did! You meant that Laura’s _too dumb_ to know what she can and can’t handle, and needs to be protected by the _big strong grownups_ . That’s all anyone ever wants to say to me.  My dad, the _Zetas_ , **you**. Everyone.”

“Laura-”

“I like you. _I really do._ I like that you’re brave and strong and all kinds of righteous, but _I don’t need a dad._ I’ve already got that one covered.”

Danny turns to Carmilla, stricken at the sudden change of events.

“Is this because of you and your-”

_Is this because of you and your infatuation with the vampire who bled you?_

“No, no! It’s just, me and you… needing different things, y’know?”

It was like the ground had disappeared under her feet.

“Okay, fine. I’ll - I’ll back off.”

 _Need to inform the Huntress, maybe get Jessie and Sarah to guard her at a distance_.

Danny turns to Carmilla, bitterness infecting her voice.

“Hey, _dead girl_ . If anything happens to her, I’m coming back here with that stake, _got it?_ ”

Carmilla gave a sneering smile in return.

“I’ll hold my breath.”

Danny looks back to Laura, knowing it was over between them.

_No more ‘maybe after all this is over we can go out sometime’._

“And just… be careful, okay?” Laura nods. “So… I guess I’ll see you in class.”

Danny’s heart sank as she was stuck being her TA still, and would have to grade her paper on _Beowulf._ And try really hard to not read too far into anything Laura writes to reflect them, either.

“Yeah, about that. I-”

“-what?”

Laura shook her head, dismissing the thought.

“Nothing. It’s not important. Just a dumb question about my midterm.”

“Okay.” Danny leaves Laura’s dorm room, and it feels like it may be for the very last time.


	12. The Mushroom Uprising

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration for this chapter/story arc was from LaF's line: 
> 
> Did you see Danny out there? Good thing she’s on our side, cause that was violent.

Danny was moping on her way back to Summer Society house when her phone buzzed, indicating an incoming text from Alan.

**\---Fungus network compromised. Please assist in destroying them. Wear dust masks.---**

The Warrior of Artemis cussed silently and forwarded the message to Roman and Watts, debating whether or not to put on her warpaint for this.

Further text messages came in notifying the Summer Society that barrels of fungicide are being deployed across campus on the backs of trucks as per their pre-arranged purge protocol.

_At least the nerds planned ahead._

When Danny made it to the edge of the Summers Wards, Sam was already handing her the black grease paint and a dust mask, wielding a baseball bat.

“Mask up; the spores are apparently taking over some of the students according to reports on the Ethereal Web.” Sam ordered, taking point of a team of Sisters. “When dealing with the students, use melee weapons only and apply non-lethal force because it’s fungal not viral. That means it’s probably reversible.”

Roman had invoked the magic in the Huntress Sword in order to be heard over the din, assigning every pair of Huntresses a full complement of Sisters to different regions of the campus.

“...Mel, Jesse, Lustig Building. Sam, Danny… Greenhouses. Levi, you’re with me for the Library and Chloe’s with Watts at the Admin Building.” Huntress Roman raised the sword up into the air, as a General would rally the troops. “ _By Artemis!_ ”

**“BY ARTEMIS!”**

* * *

 

“Wish I had my Spaminator for this,” Sam grumbled, trying to get a handle of the morningstar she found in the armory.

Danny strapped on a machete to deal with the mushrooms as well as a set of brass knuckles that looked like they came from the 18th century.

“Unless you have rock salt ammo for your Mossberg tactical shotgun…”

“I’ll remember that next time. Sisters, ready?”

Danny and Sam looked at their team, armed with baseball bats, telescoping batons, and one with a bo staff.

“You know how to use that, Elise?” Danny asked the sister with the staff.

Elise nodded, “Martial Arts since I was eight. I’d love to spar against you sometime; match your European Martial Arts to my Eastern. You do sword and parrying dagger, right?”

Danny nodded at that. “I have some high-density foam covers for them; maybe once this is over, we’ll get that chance.”

“Cool, it’s a date,” Sam intoned impatience, “now let’s go kill some mushrooms.”

As the team made the way to the greenhouse, they kept stopping every time they came across a set of purple mushrooms so Danny could hack them down with the machete.

“Weren’t these only like a few centimeters tall yesterday?” Sam asked, stomping the mushroom remains with her boots to stop the spores from going airborne.

“Yeah, that they grew over half a meter is quite disturbing.”

“What the heck were the alchemists trying to do with these?” Elise asked, expertly wielding her staff and knocking over one of the lurching students with a low sweep that connected behind their heel.

“It was some sort of communication network; an all-natural version of wi-fi.” Danny replied, putting away her machete and making certain her mask was still secured. “Let’s keep going.”

The team kept making their way towards the greenhouses, Danny getting the opportunity to use the brass knuckles a few times on a shambling student that lurched too close for comfort.

As they got to the greenhouse, Danny and Sam exchanged a worried glance as they took in the dense crowd of shamblers.

“It would make sense the greenhouse is ground zero.”

“There’s no way we won’t get infected with the spores.”

“Lawrence, incoming!” Elise called out, pointing at the red truck pulling up to a stop. Alan was standing in the bed of the truck that Kirsch was driving, fully loaded with barrels of fungicide.

“Danny! Here, take one of these barrels; we gotta drop more off by the library!” Alan called out, getting the team of Summers to race their way over and unload the heavy barrel.

Sam took point, handing off her morningstar to Danny while she put down the machete in favor of the brass knuckle.

“Okay, team lift here, this is going to be heavy. Danny, clear the path for us.”

“With pleasure,” Danny muttered darkly, bat in the left hand and brass knuckles in the right, slugging away and knocking the shamblers out cold either with a batter's swing or a weighted backhand.

The rest of the Summers team was rolling the drum of fungicide into position while Danny rode the adrenaline high, looking for more to wail on. Another horde of shamblers was approaching as Danny bounced on her toes in anticipation to take them out.

“DANNY THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO DEFEND THE FUNGI!” Sam called out, needing backup as some of the shamblers were getting back up to stop the Sisters’ plan.

Danny’s head spun, torn between unleashing a world of pain on the incoming shamblers or the other ones that were getting up slowly, one at a time. Danny turned towards the incoming horde, grinning with bared teeth as she tore through the group like a one-woman army.

In the distance, Carmilla was also taking down the shambling students with what appeared to be bare knuckle brawling while Laura did the same, a bandana covering her face from the spores. LaFontaine was busy capturing some of the spores and doing culture smears onto agar petri plates while Perry was, naturally, in denial of what was going on.

Once LaF had their petri plates done, they stared, slack-jawed, at the ruthless brutality that Danny had that starkly contrasted Carmilla’s restrained use of force.

“LAWRENCE!” Sam called out, the fungicide drum opened and kicked over in the greenhouse, “let’s g- the fuck, woman?”

Danny turned back to face her sisters, panting while her grin slowly collapses into a look of confusion.

Elise took a tentative step forward. “Are you bleeding?”

Danny tilted her head, questioningly. “No, they didn’t…” she looked down to see blood spattered across her arms and shirt.

Horror flooded through the tall redhead as she turned back to see the shamblers on the ground, a pool of blood slowly expanding outward from a few of them.

Sam shoved her way through the crowd of sisters, snatching the baseball bat away from the tall redhead, and knelt down to check the pulse of sen unconscious student.

“Head wounds always bleed more, so don’t freak out at the bit of blood.” Sam barked, spurring the sisters into action.

One by one, the Summers checked for pulses and applied pressure to the head wounds, relief showing when the wounds began to clot.

“Can I help?” Danny asked, standing awkwardly by herself as her team did triage.

“You did **enough** , Lawrence.” Elise snapped, pointing towards the blue tentacle phone, “call student health services though. Tell them we've got a half dozen unconscious concussions.”

Danny crossed the street to the phone podium, pressing the medical emergency button and waited for a response.

 _I did that. Not Carmilla, the vampire._ **_Me._ **  

Locking away her Desert Eagle wasn't the solution any more than repressing her gender identity did.

Danny needed self control. She needed to trust herself.

She needed to be better.

 


	13. Compromised

Medical services were out in force as her team went back to the Summer House, looking at her in shock and horror. Alan was dropped off by Kirsh and his truck, eyes bugged out wide at the amount of blood on his tall friend.

“Lawrence, you-”

“-not my blood,” She cut him off, not wanting to go get into it. “How do you look so pristine?”

Alan smirked at that, pulling an etched stone out of his pocket and holding it in her hand.

“ _A ghlanadh._ ” Danny felt a tingle run over her flesh starting from the hand, crawling over her forearm before it hit Jessie’s protection spell focused in her war paint, burning slightly at the elbow before the protection spell receded and the tingle flooded her entire body, washing away a second later.

She knew magic when she felt it, pulling her hand away from the stone to realize that she was no longer covered in blood. Alan kept the stone in his hand and put it back into his pocket.

“What the hell?”

Alan couldn’t help but grin. “Run your tongue along the outside of your teeth.”

Danny did that, surprised to feel a clean, peppermint feeling there.

“Cleaning charm?”

Alan nodded.

“Grandfather was a Druid; created this so my gran wouldn’t complain about his cigar habit. You feel better?”

Danny ran her hands over her arms and face, trying to figure out the odd feeling.

“It stripped off my makeup but not the war paint.” Her fingers trailed her jawline and throat, where the electrolysis could only do so much for her. She wasn’t certain if he could see any trace of stubble or not.

“Oh, sorry about that. You…”

Danny tensed, knowing what was about to come next.

“...cover up your freckles? I always thought that was the best feature on a redhead.” Alan said, shrugging.

The Warrior of Artemis sighed in relief, realizing she wasn’t about to be outed.

“Yeah, I um… try to use a bit of concealer for that.”

Alan quirks his lips in thought before offering her the stone again.

“Try a makeup charm? I’ll tell you the invocation and you can mentally picture what you want.”

Danny shrugged, curious.

“How does it work?”

“It’s tied to the earth and my bloodline, so I’ll need to have contact with it and be standing on the ground and not concrete. Invocation is _Dèan suas_.”

Danny touched the stone and said the invocation, thinking of how her makeup looked this morning. As the magic tingled over her face, she felt the war paint drop its defenses as the spell finished. She let go of the stone and pulled out her phone to see how well the makeup charm worked.

“That’s impressive. How long does it last?” Her war paint was gone, but she could feel the protection spell still there. _It was concealing the war paint? Neat_.

Alan shrugged. “Dunno. I’ve never used it for makeup. But that’s not what I’m here for. The mushrooms were never supposed to do this.”

Danny nodded. “Pretty certain you didn’t plan on a zombie apocalypse.”

“No, you don’t get it. Someone who _knew about the network_ **tainted** it.”

“You mean sabotage?”

Alan nodded.

“I can’t trust anyone in the Chantry right now. You saw the level of security we have; the only way you can get inside anywhere is to be a member. And only the Alchemists could have accessed the laboratories; not even the apprentices.” He grimaced at that. “And if you’re right about the Dean being behind the kidnappings, maybe she’s got ringers infiltrating all of our clubs.”

Danny choked on that bit of information.

“There’s no way that… we choose our own members.”

Alan shook his head slightly in anger.

“So do we, and our Alchemists have been around for at least two years, and didn’t you say that the girls go missing every twenty? Someone has been playing the long game.”

* * *

“CALLIS YOU CANNOT SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM WITH FIRE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Huntress Roman yelled, the after-action debriefing with the Warriors of Artemis turning into a general bitch session.

“It wasn't me this time; the shamblers-”

“They were practically zombies! How in Diana's green hunting fields would they wield fire unless you set them on fire first?!”

Danny frowned at that, trying to not gloat at her nemesis’ potential downfall.

The exchange continued to get heated as Second Huntress Watts tried to get them back on topic.

“Casualties were minimal due to our _restrained use of force_. Campus patrol credits were awarded proportionally to the number of mushroom clusters destroyed. Major hubs seemed to have more shamblers, which were awarded double points for the language building, Lustig building, and the greenhouses.

“Recruits Kira Hoult, Sarah Jenkins, and Samantha Wisniewski have made full sister status and can now test to qualify for Warrior status and to participate in the next Adonis Festival and Hunt.”

Danny smiled at that, proud to see Sarah recover from the attack to make full sister status. She had no idea what kind of creature could shift to a giant black cat, but the transformation into smoke ruled out most shapeshifters and skinwalkers.

Huntress Roman resumed with the agenda, quickly approaching the part that had Danny’s stomach in knots.

“We will continue with the night patrols and offer escorts as a courtesy to any who ask on the same schedule as before. Lawrence, report?”

Danny stood up awkwardly, turning to wave to the officers and Warriors awkwardly.

“The Mushroom Incident should have been impossible, according to my source with the Alchemy Club. The purple mushrooms were designed to be a network, a type of communications array.”

Mel huffed at that.

“Nerds _fucked_ with nature and got sloppy. **I don't need to know anything more than that.** ”

Danny glared at Mel, silencing her.

_Of course you’d be happy to remain ignorant, Callis._

“Except that _throwing spores_ that made _the shamblers_ was never part of the original mushroom morphology. The mushrooms were sabotaged, which means that somebody in the alchemy club knew enough of the rhizoming to create maximum chaos by instigating a zombie apocalyptic event.”

The Huntress’ jaw dropped as she started piecing it together.

“And we already know that the Dean is somehow involved with the kidnappings.”

Danny’s eyes locked onto Cera Roman’s as the rest of the Huntresses gasped and muttered among themselves.

Danny Lawrence continued.

“I believe that the Dean has infiltrated the Zetas. According to Carmilla, Will is another one of the Dean's vampires. She may have done the same to us.”

Huntress Roman frowned at that.

“Do we have any idea where else Dean Morgan might have planted her spies? Or how many vampires work for her?”

Danny shook her head sadly.

“No, but we oversee our own selections process so it’s not like the Dean can just appoint her vampires among our ranks. Not to mention, we all do stuff in the daylight.”

Roman and Watts conferred with each other, heads shaking ever so slightly.

“Alright Lawrence, we’re going to need you to try and get that intel from Carmilla. We need to know what we’re up against.”

“With all due respect, Huntress, she lifted me off of my feet in a single-handed choke hold. She doesn’t exactly get along with me.”

Second Huntress Watts shrugged at that.

“Then use Laura to glean the information.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Danny mumbled to herself.

“What was that, Lawrence?”

Danny cleared her throat. “Yes, Huntress.”

“Dismissed.”

Danny left the meeting room and went back to her own bunk, replaying the conversation she had with Alan after the shamblers almost instantaneously returned to normal.

 _If there was a traitor in the Sisterhood, who could it be?_

* * *

Danny wasn’t certain how the movie night in Laura’s room turned into a classic “Netflix and Chill” stereotype, but she wasn’t going to argue with the tiny gay who was aggressively kissing and probing her mouth with her tongue.

They had been laying in her bed together, sharing the yellow pillow and watching some show on the laptop when Laura instigated the lip-lock.

Danny sighed into the kiss, running her hands over Laura’s body posessively. Laura deepened the kiss and soon battled the redhead for dominance. When oxygen became absolutely necessary, Danny pulled away from the blonde, rolling onto her side to face the wall instead of a very randy freshman.

“Laura, um, I really like you but-”

Laura’s hand stroked Danny’s stomach and slowly slid down to gently caress her quickly hardening member. As soon as Laura’s fingertips touched it, Danny’s hips rocked forward, forcing a needy whimper out of her.

“I already know. I’ve been taking it slow for your sake, for when you were ready to tell me.”

Danny gulped as the hand slid up and under her panties, which were trying their best to maintain a tuck until Laura freed the erection, using her other hand to roll Danny back onto her back.

“Oh, okay, well… what about your roommate?”

“I told her to get lost for the evening; she won’t bother us.”

Danny complied as Laura smiled into their kiss and stroked Danny, straddling on top of her as she moved down the bed with a trail of kisses down her torso before taking off her top.

Danny’s arousal was fighting her anxiety as she realized that she had become fully erect and had Laura’s tongue running along the edge of the head, delicate enough to make her beg for more.

“I’m just going to treat it like a clit for now, okay?” Laura’s voice nearly purred as she wrapped her lips around the tip and bobbed her head up and down, stimulating Danny as the redhead’s knuckles went white and held the pillow over her own face as she panted with desire.

“Mff Lrr…” Danny moaned into the pillow.

Laura pulled the pillow away, eyes locking onto Danny.

“Don’t be ashamed of your body; I like it. Your tone biceps, the almost six pack you’ve got going, and your strong hands,” Laura takes Danny’s hands and puts them on the back of her head as she resumed her rhythm, “maybe think of it like a very realistic strap on.”

“Laura!” Danny gasped, fingers fisting the blonde’s hair as Laura takes Danny’s full length in one slow draw, gasping for air as she lets up.

“You okay?” Laura’s eyes shine with sexy mischief as she takes Danny to the hilt once again, rendering the redhead speechless as she can feel Laura’s throat convulse and flinch at the sensation.

“Yeah… I’m good.” Danny gasps as she rocks her hips upward in desperate need.

Laura continues with her tender ministrations, changing up the rhythm and using her hand around the length to pay more attention to the tip before stripping herself entirely and reaching over the headboard and retrieving a condom, tearing it open and struggling slightly to put it on the redhead’s shaft.

“This is not like the banana I practiced on earlier.”

Danny used her hands to assist, rewarded with a kiss as Laura sheathed herself with a gasping moan of pleasure; one that Danny hopes to have burned into her memory forever. Laura arches back, rocking her hips as Danny can actually feel Laura’s walls squeezing her in desperate need.

“Fuck me…” Laura moans, rocking herself on Danny’s lap, putting the redhead’s hands directly on her breasts as she throws her head back and makes a small growl and quickens her pace.

Danny smirked but obeyed, moving her hips until they found a tempo they both liked, hands trailing over each other as Laura rode her lit TA, touching her own clit with a frenzied pace that told the redhead that she was close to orgasm.

Danny’s hands went clamped onto Laura’s hips, supporting the blonde’s weight as she did her best to drive herself into her, holding herself back from letting go too soon.

Laura began to break out into a cold sweat, pushing back against every thrust Danny made, begging silently to come this way as her eyes locked onto her lover’s.

“Fuck, Danny… More. I’m about…”

Danny thrust her hips forward pushing herself even further into Laura, loving the way she tightened around her. Laura shuddered as Danny repeated the motion again and again, burying herself deeper as Laura cried out Danny’s name, hands fighting between clawing at the wall and grabbing at Danny to pull her impossibly deeper.

Laura sat up straight, grabbed Danny’s thighs for leverage, and rode Danny until she came screaming in absolute bliss. Laura sagged and melted into Danny, kissing her as she muttered her thanks, absently still rocking her hips as Danny wasn’t spent yet.

“You didn’t…?”

Danny shook her head, getting up just enough to roll them over, putting Laura on her back while Danny was still inside her and needing release. Laura chuckled at that, nearly delirious in her post-orgasmic bliss.

“Okay; go to town, Xena. Use me and get off.”

Danny grinned at that, hands gripping her wrists and pinning them above her head, using her full weight and length to fuck Laura with a quick and pounding rhythm.

Laura gasped for breath, overwhelmed with pleasure as Danny felt herself begin to crest and break, ready for a release she hadn’t had in years.

* * *

Danny’s eyes jerked open blearily as she tried to get her bearings and turn off her alarm without success. Though her mind had been telling her to get over Laura, her dreams were an entirely different story.

_The kind that need a cold shower and a reminder that Laura doesn’t know about her._

She blinked a few times before realizing it was her phone ringing instead, pulling the phone to her face and swiping to the right to accept the call.

“Hey Danny? It’s Lola.”

“Lola?” Her eyes focused on the time; it was only 9 PM.

“Perry. Laura’s Floor Don.”

Danny tried to stifle a yawn, but failed. “Yeah, okay, what’s up?”

“Well, um, Laura needs to talk to you. But she wasn’t certain you’d answer the phone for her.”

 _She would have been right had the situation been different_.

“Okay I’ll call-”

“-she’d rather do this in person. Can, uh, you come over? Please?”

Danny rolled her eyes as she stared at the ceiling, knowing that she should probably ask Laura in person to pump Carmilla for information on all of the Dean’s minions.

“Yeah, sure.” She thinks for a second. “Carmilla isn’t there, is she?”

“No, it’s dark out, so she’s off _prowling and scowling_ somewhere.” Perry sounded uncharacteristically bitter.

“You okay?”

“Su-LaFontaine isn’t even _LaFontaine_ anymore. She’s acting more like Sarah-Jane and Natalie and nothing like woman I grew to lo…” She gave a long sigh. “Like the person I grew to love. They want _pizza rolls_ for goodness sake!”

_LaFontaine, the brains of the team, has been turned into a stereotypical ditzy party-person._

“I’m so sorry, Perry.”

“Yeah, thanks. I just… we gotta resolve this. Can you come talk to Laura?”

There was an unmistakable note of desperation in her plea that Danny couldn’t ignore.

“Alright, fine. I’ll be there in 20.”

* * *

Danny knocks on the door before opening it, _because of course Laura isn’t locking the door._

“Hey, Laura. Uh, Perry said you needed to talk to me?”

Laura was facing her laptop, which was recording.

“-my Lit TA.” She turns to face the redhead. “Hey, Danny. You look good.”

Danny’s eyes flicked over to see Carmilla trying to hide behind a book. It vaguely reminded her of her dad’s cat whose logic believed that if she couldn’t see you, that you couldn’t see them.

“Thanks. And… you’re still filming. Even _after_ what happened to LaFontaine.” She couldn’t keep the disappointed sound out of her voice.

“Oh, God. Are you still watching?” Laura’s eyes widened with surprise, but absent of any hope that would have been there if she were still crushing on the tall ginger. The realization landed like a dagger to Danny's heart.

“Oh, no no. Uh, not after the Library. I worry too much.”

“Well, I’m glad that you still care.” _Damn it, Lawrence, shut up!_ “But if you aren’t watching, then how’d you know about LaFontaine?”   
  
“Oh, I... ran into them in the hall.” Danny was too comfortable with lying to the girl she thought she wanted to date before _seduction eyes_ came into the scene.

“Yeah, it’s… not good.” Danny takes a seat on Laura’s bed, remembering way too many daydreams that involved this bed and a certain precocious blonde.

“Uh, so… I was kind of hoping I could ask you something.”

Danny’s pulse raced for a second, wondering if Laura finally woke up and realized that she couldn’t honestly date a bloodsucking vampire.

“Yeah, of course.”

Laura shrugged as she hedged on.

“The immediate thing of all this is that... it has been very stressful.”

Danny smiled, feeling a semblance of the chemistry they first had when Laura had a long list of questions in the TA’s office.

“Yeah, I know. I haven’t exactly seen you in class lately.”

Laura quirked the corner of her mouth in an almost smile.

“Yeah, about that.” A beat. “Can I have an extension on my term paper?”

It was like cold water slammed Danny hard in the face; she wanted to physically shake shake off the shock.

“ _What?_ ”

Laura pressed on, in that cute nervous way that was just _infuriating_ now.

“Just for, like, a week, until the big _soul-sucking ritual I have to thwart_ is over.”

The TA let out a breath as if she forgot to breathe.

“ ** _What?_ ** ”

Laura shrugged, hoping the cute ploy would work on the tall redhead. Again.

“Three days?”

Danny sighed, cold disgust creeping back in. _She never loved you. She just needed to_ **_use_ ** _you._

“Oh, _my God._ I can’t believe I thought… No, instead, you had me come _all this way_ because you can’t stay _on top of your homework?_ ”

“Seriously? Trying to save _four people_ isn’t worth three days? And, wait, can’t believe you thought what?”

Danny scoffs at that. “Uh… nothing.” She gets up.

Laura looks at her quizzically.

“Did you think that I invited you over here so that we could…?”

Danny was nothing but rage and disgust.

“No, _not anymore_ I don’t! I can’t believe your **nerve.** ”

“Can’t believe _my_ nerve? I’m not the one being unfair and vindictive!”

“Well, you’re not the one who got thrown over for _Elvira,_ **_Mistress of the Snark!_ ** ”

“Okay, that is so unfair!”

“No, you know what? _I’m not having this conversation._ If you can’t keep your _supernatural affairs_ in order long enough to get your assignments done, that’s your business.”

Danny opens the door to leave, trying to think of final thing to say. Something that said _‘I love you’_ and _‘Fuck you’_ in equal parts.

Carmilla interrupted Danny’s train of thought.

“Come back _never._ ”

Danny’s eyes were red with unshed tears and rage.

“ _This place was cleaner when you were tied up,_ ” Danny turns to Laura. “Don’t call me again.”


	14. The Trap is Sprung

Danny knew she fucked up her mission to find out about the Dean’s minions as soon as she walked into Laura’s room. There was no way for her to schmooze up to Carmilla, and all she had to do was give Laura her three day extension. She trudged her way back to the Summers house, ready to just turn in and get back to sleep despite the sounds of heavy construction equipment building the stage for the end of term party.

“Danny?” Sam called out, grabbing the redhead’s attention. She was with Jessie and Kira as the three of them crossed the bio building, weapons held at the low ready.

“Oh hey guys… why are y’all patrolling together?” Danny knew Sam and Jessie had their own teams that would patrol the opposite ends of the campus.

Jessie’s attention was off in the distance as Kira did her best to copy Sam’s familiarity with her custom bow, even though she was armed with her signature throwing tomahawk hatchet as well as the Summer Society Basic Training Bow.

“Callis got pulled completely off of patrol duty, and the new Sisters are getting trained according to their preferred weapon. Samantha is with Levi since she’s a shooter and Sarah’s got Chloe’s affinity for compound bows. Even Roman and Watts are patrolling now, we seem so short-handed.” Sam checked Kira’s arm guard before scanning the perimeter.

Jessie’s eyes were unfocused as she held her dagger up, fighting against the swell of magic that had it tremble in her hands. “We’ve got some major trouble brewing, less than a kilometer this way. Can you sense it, Kira?”

The newly minted Sister nodded, proving the other reason why she was paired with Jessie.

“Its swelling… we should run.”

The boom of an explosion grabbed their collective attention as massive plumes of purple flames shot up into the air. An instant later, lightning slammed into the same location and kept striking before _a fucking meteor_ slammed into the building, shaking the very ground they stood on.

“Crap, that’s the Alchemist Chantry…” Danny muttered.

“Lawrence, I think we’re gonna need your help.” Jessie replied, putting away her Jackal Dagger and unholstering her Glock.

“You armed?” Sam asks, making a cursory scan of her friend.

Danny shook her head.

Sam slipped her Mossberg 500 with sling off of her back and handed it to Danny with her free hand. “I’m going to want the Spaminator back.”

“Ammo?”

“Fully loaded with silver coated 20 gauge buckshot, modified my baby to take a magazine if needed.” Sam was automatically patting the pocket. “Should you need it.”

“Should we call for backup?” Kira asks, adrenaline flooding through her body, threatening to disrupt her training as it demanded that she run away.

Sam shook her head as she lead her team and handed Danny the magazine in her pocket.

“No time. Lawrence, take point. Jessie, you stick with her and I’ll keep the recruit- I mean, Sister - by my side and watch your six.”

The four of them agreed, Danny and Jessie leading the way to the Chantry while Kira tried to shake off the nervous energy.

“Sam? How… how do I know what to aim at? I’ve hit targets, yeah, but this is different. I might uh… accidentally hit Danny or Jessie.” Her rambling voice betrayed her panic and fear.

Sam turned to face Kira, nodding at the saucer-sized eyes looking to her for guidance.

“Hey, look at me. It is different, Silas is different. Are you up for this? Are you? Look, I just need to know, cause the Alchemists are fighting with lightning and meteors. Okay, look, the Chantry is burning with purple fire, we're fighting the freakin' Dean and her Vampire minions, and we have bow and arrows.   
  
“None of this makes sense. The lunch lady serves eyeballs, Second Huntress Watts is a werewolf, and I'm fairly certain that the ‘International Students’ were never human to begin with.   
  
“But I'm going with my Sisters because it's my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. It doesn't matter if you want to go back to the Summers House. If you come with me, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay here, go home, we'll see you once this emergency is over, but if you come with me now, you're a Warrior of Artemis. Alright, good chat. Yeah, purple fire.”

Danny tried to take in what she was seeing, but too much was happening. The roof was on fire and the front wall was missing in chunks, disappearing and reappearing in some pattern to show various fights going on at the different levels; scared recruits lobbing the purple fungus at a fire golem, Alan wielding a tanbō while cursing in gaelic, fighting against his Master Alchemist Christoph who was _turning into freaking smoke_.

On another level, Alchemists had warded their kitchen and turned it into a makeshift triage center, most of them bleeding and wounded as a lithe elvish junior hurried about to run an IV bag of plasma to an injured alchemist.

Jessie’s eyes followed the pattern of the wall exposing parts of the building, putting away her glock and unsheathing her dagger.

“I got the Golem, Lawrence. You defend the kitchen, and the bows can pick off the vampire from out here.”

Danny nodded in confusion as things fell in place.

_Turning to smoke is a vampire power… Christoph is one of the Dean’s vampires... Carmilla could have escaped the rope at any time._

“The building wants us to help; it’s sentient,” Danny called out, pointing up to the second floor, “Sam, Kira, shoot through the gaps in the wall at Christoph when he turns solid again.”

Danny followed Jessie up the stairs, turning off at the second floor while the Mage went up to the third to deal with the golem.

“Alan, it’s Danny! We’re here to help!”

“ _Dealanaich!_ ” Alan yelled as thunder clapped loudly overhead, making the tall redhead instinctively flinch at the sound as lightning shot through the building, making the lights flicker.

The Kitchen door opened on its own, beckoning the Warrior of Artemis to go through to the surprise of the Alchemists inside.

“You must be Lawrence. I’m Alisha.” The blonde said with an impromptu curtsey, turning to check on her next patient. The building had been torn to pieces and soaked in blood, and Danny knew where most of it had come from.

“I uh… you’re an elf.”

“And you’re _fëa inwis_.”

Danny nodded, uncertain if ‘transgender’ actually could translate into Elvish.

“Yeah, I’m transgender, if that’s what you mean.”

“Our languages fail to properly express spirit-changing. Your _fëa,_ as in spirit, changes you.”

Danny nodded in understanding, realizing that the fight had gone too quiet.

“Alisha? Tell me you can hear-”

She shook her head, terror in her cerulean blue eyes. “I can’t track the sound or smells when he turns to smoke. We had no idea he was a vampire, until…” she shrugged, gesturing at the injuries around her.

“I think he can shift into an animal form. Will the wards hold against that?”

“I have no idea if they are working even now. It’s just a basic “do us no harm” ward.”

The door burst open, and Danny had half a second to recognize Jessie before plugging her with 20 gauge silver shot.

“Golem dealt with, we got burn victims coming in.” She turned and scented the air, frowning. “Wish I had Chloe’s nose. Can you smell anything?”

Danny shook her head while Alisha raised a finger to silence them.

“I smell grass and moss, the Druid’s magic…”

“Alan uh, helped me glamour.” Danny replied sheepishly.

Alisha brushed the comment away, closing her eyes and focusing.

“He’s not in the building now. Neither is Christoph.”

Danny turned to look through the exposed wall to see Sam and and Kira running past each other, firing arrows at a massive grey wolf-dog as Alan swung his tanbō, vines shooting out of the earth to bind around the transformed vampire.

The earth erupted, shoving massive rocks upward as cover for Sam and Kira as they reloaded, and a series of large boulders made a type of rough staircase from the second floor where the wall had disappeared down to the battlefield.

“Go, help Alan! I'll do what I can from here to help you stop the life leech!” Alisha shouted, wielding elven magic as other alchemists cleared off another table to cut the burned robes off of an alchemist recruit.

Jessie worked the slide on her glock, steeling her nerves as she ran out the second story and kept her weapon trained on the vampire as she went down the stepping stones.

 _By Artemis,_ Danny prayed quietly, following with the Mossberg.

* * *

The earth seemed to find her feet with every step she took, smooth stones with gaps wide enough between them so Danny could avoid the cross-fire of the archers while Alan called forth for more lightning in gaelic. The five of them surrounded the creature in a semi-circle, keeping Christoph under constant attack.

Christoph kept shifting in and out of form, getting freed from the vines and arrows as he turned into smoke before taking the canine shape to snap and attempt to bite Alan.

“Light me up!” Sam called out, holding an arrow up to the sky.

Jessie’s left hand tapped her sheathed dagger before snapping her fingers, earning a hurried “thank you” and “what the fuck” from Sam and Kira, respectively.

“Lawrence I’m shooting copper and lead to almost no effect!” Jessie called out, breathless from the spelling, “We need you closer!”

It started to turn into a blur for Danny, flaming arrows making massive canine shriek as the redhead felt her pulse throb in her neck. Christoph shifted back to human shape, but sluggish this time as he tried to pull the arrows out.

“You are all such tiny and _insignificant fools!_ You do not understand!” Christoph grimaced as he dug an arrow out and snapped it in half with a single hand.

“Who are you? Why is your ‘Mother’ doing this?!” Danny followed the stepping stones ahead of her, pulling the trigger and pelting the vampire’s face with silver buckshot, hissing as it singed the undead flesh.

Christoph lunged towards Alan, getting struck by lighting for his trouble before he used his tanbō  to club the vampire’s head and backing away to a safe distance.

Danny saw her opening, following the stones before her that began pushing her upwards into a leaping attack; shooting the vampire, working the pump action, and shooting again as she went over his head and landed in a roll on thick, lush clover that had instantly sprung forward.

This time the vines held firm as the vampire bled black-red ichor from his wounds, seeming too exhausted or drained to put up much of a fight. Wisps of smoke rolled off of him as the silver ammo burned his flesh as Christoph slowly worked to expel it from his body.

_He was rejecting the silver._

“You cannot understand, humans. Mother has placed her children well here at Silas, and by sunrise, not even _Artemis_ herself can stop the sacrifices!”

Christoph shuddered and looked panicked, possibly realizing that he didn’t have the strength to shift into smoke again. Danny’s mouth was dry as she licked her lips, tasting salt and feeling the burn in her legs. She needed to catch her breath.

“Who else works for ‘Mother’? Is there a spy in the Summer Society?” Sam asked, arrow nocked and ready to fly.

Christoph cackled as he hurtled himself against the vines, madness turning him desperate.

“It’s too late anyways! We are _everywhere_ , and we know Laura’s plan. It will fail; Carmilla won’t get the sword. She has always been the weakest among us.”

Danny worked the pump action for the shotgun, putting the barrel inches away from his face. She felt her mind and body grow cold and still as her vision narrowed down to the next few seconds.

“Answer the question.”

Christoph was unable to get the last pieces of silver out of his body as terror flooded his body. He burned through all of his energy and he knew it.

“Mother doesn’t tell us everything; she doesn’t trust anyone since Mircalla’s betrayal for _love_. But mother has talked about her 33 children in her family. Only the strongest get selected for infiltration.”

“So you are in league with the Dean,” Alan spat, “and I think I can speak for the rest of the Alchemy Club when I say you’re deposed as our Master Alchemist.”

Alisha and some of the injured Alchemists came outside, carrying massive silver shackles.

“Alan? I think we’re going to run a few… experiments… on him.”

* * *

Danny had crashed as soon as she got back to her bed, her injuries minimal since the protection war paint hadn't been removed.

_The protection washes off with facial cleanser; had Alan's glamour sealed it in and make it permanent?_

Kira hadn't fared as well, as she wasn't used to the repeated pulls of the 50 pound bow and the toll out can take on your hand. She also face planted into one of the tall boulders at full speed while strafing, the bruise stretched across the right side of her face and cheekbone.  

Sam had massaged Kira with tiger balm as they decompressed and talked through her first combat experience.

What Danny hasn't expected, though, was Kira asking to curl up with her.

“I won't be able to sleep otherwise,” she plead, “not after seeing all the burn victims.”

That's how she found herself being the big spoon to a Sister wearing an ice pack on her face as her alarm went off, half startled at having her arm around someone.

“Morning, lady killer.” Her roommate Sam teased, reassembling her Mossberg while holding the rag she used to clean it with.

“Shut up,” Danny retorted, nodding to the Spaminator, “your baby has quite the kick.”

“That's how you know it's effective,” she joked. “Hey Kira- wakey wakey.”

Kira pulled the now warm ice pack from her face, squinting at the light in the room.

“I'm up. Just enjoying the warmth.” She burrowed back into Danny, grumping quietly.

“End of term party today. If Mommie Dearest’s minions are going to cause chaos, that's where they'll be.”

“Crap,” Danny sat up, trying to think straight. “Huntress wants us out in force?”

Sam nodded knowingly.

“This is a crowded, public event so melee weapons only.”

“Lethal okay?” Kira asked, doubtlessly thinking of her tomahawk.

“Ask Watts but after last night… I think so.”

Danny and Kira made their way down to breakfast, sipping juice and listening to Watts go over the battle plan. Unlike the town hall, the Summers would be dispersed amidst the crowd for immediate crowd control.

“-Oh, and Sam, I want you with Roman and a contingent of armed recruits.”

The house exploded in murmurs of surprise and concern.

“After what we learned from the Alchemist Chantry, we’re pretty outmatched by the vampires. We’re going to need every last one of us out there. Jessie says she can expand the protection to all of us, but only for a few hours.”

Huntress Roman stood up, nodding to Watts that she was about to interrupt.

“Also, because of how _unkillable_ these vampires seem to be, I’m… going to authorize that the Warriors bring ranged weapons with silver ammo.”

“What if we don’t have any?” Levi asked.

“Our call to the National Chapter for assistance got us a few cases, actually. I’ll make sure you get a few boxes of 9 mil.”

_National only sent ammo?_

Danny spoke up, goosebumps starting to cover her arms.

“Isn’t National sending us reinforcements?”

Roman shook her head sadly.

“Apparently it’s all hands on deck in Africa; an  Elder God called Z’Klatheg- it’s unpronounceable- is attempting to rise so the other chapters are getting sent there with all of the body armor and Thorium ammunition they can spare. Apparently the creature is protected by a warlord and a small army. They did hit up the Alumni network for us, so we might get a few people later today.”

Mel raised her hand.

“Huntress, what about-”

“-NO” Roman and Watts said together.

Roman continued.

“We are attempting to reduce the body count, not increase it. Conceal carry everything; last thing we need to do is incite panic. We know the Zetas are going to come with their pitchforks and salted herring. Let’s get ready and move out in 30 minutes.”

Danny finished her greek yogurt and strawberries on the way back up to her room, changing into her tactical belt with drop holster for her Desert Eagle.

She froze with her finger hovering over the biometric lock, uncertain if she trusted herself with it again.

Kira was at the doorway, clearing her throat to politely interrupt.

“Sam said I should tag along with you; make certain I don’t uh… get lost getting to the party.”

When Danny met her eyes, she knew it was a lie. She smiled at her fellow Sister, thankful for the unstated encouragement.

“No problem, Kira.”

“Grab all your gear, Lawrence. Sarah’s dying to get out there too.” She held up two boxes of fifty caliber silver ammo. “Got any spare mags I can load for you?”

* * *

The party was only beginning, as a band was doing a poor cover of Sublime that most of the students were ignoring. Amidst it all, Danny saw the tall tridents poking over the crowd and she noticed the lacking sneer from Will… and Kirsch.

_Kirsch never misses a party._

Danny nodded to one of the recruits, who was poorly concealing the morningstar.

“Inform the other teams that something’s up.” Danny nodded in four different directions. “Sam and Roman, Levi and Watts, Mel and Chloe, and Jessie’s with your Sister Samantha. Go.”

As the recruit went to spread the word, Kira and Sarah were checking the perimeter and keeping an eye on the remaining recruit.

“Think Will and the vampires are planning an ambush?”

Danny nodded.

“That’s what I’d do if I were them.”

“Wish we had some sort of hands-free radio system.” Kira muttered to Danny.

“That can get overheard; better to use runners or hand signals. Also I doubt we’d hear each other over the noise. We also don’t have a sign for ‘vampire’.”

Larry approached Danny and Kira, loaded hotdog in one hand and his Zeta trident in the other.

“Hey Psycho Society.” His Chicago accent was muted, but still there.

“Get some new material, Zeta-head.” Kira retorted automatically.

“Hey red; your crazy ex Laura just showed up; ranting about _vampires_ and stuff. Someone needs to put down the Twilight books, if you know what I mean.” He took a bite as he tried to size them up.

Danny shrugged at that. “I don’t control her. So what?”

“Her dorm was the last known location for Will and Kirsch. They’ve been missing for a few days now, and uh, we might have _interrogate_ her, capiche?” Larry took another bite of his hotdog before walking back to his brothers.

Kira frowned as she followed Larry with her eyes.

“That smelled really good; you hungry?”

Sarah frowned at that.

“What? How can you think of food at a time like this? We have no idea how sanitary that hot dog cart is.”

Danny relented, leading the team away from the stage.

“Maybe we won’t have to hear the band play ‘Smoke Two Joints’ again back there.”

Danny and her team made it to the concession stands, Sarah went for the spiked lemonade while Kira lined up for a hot dog, leaving Danny with the lone recruit at the farmer’s market booth.

“Aren’t you going to grab something too?”

The recruit shrugged, pointing at the produce.

“We just had mushrooms zombify students and cause bedlam. Not certain I will trust the tomatoes now.”

The singer stopped abruptly, making the music grind to an awkward halt.

“What do you want, little girl?” The singer asked, fighting to keep the microphone away from her.

“I’m… not… a little girl!” Laura called out, struggling as she finally wrenched the mic from his hands. “Students and faculty of Silas! Listen to me!”

_What the hell is she doing?!_

“I’m Laura, you know, the girl doing the vlog-”

She was met with heckling, being told to get off the stage, as well as people who had never heard of her.

“-we all know about the disappearing students, right?”

“NO!” some of the shouted back.

“But, like, we had 5 girls abducted, a few reappeared and one fell to her death!”

“LIAR!”

“BULLSHIT!”

“SHOW YOUR TA-TAS!”

Danny caught Sam’s gaze and did her best to read her Sister’s lips.

_They are going to riot._

The Zetas began chanting “Ta-Tas or Death!” as the recruit finally got back to Lawrence.

“Huntress says we gotta neutralize Laura before the Dean’s minions take advantage of the situation.”

“You’ve gotta listen to me,” Laura continued, feedback from the microphone ringing everyone’s ears, “The Dean of Students is a vampire and is going to sacrifice five of our classmates to Lophi, some uh… ancient brain-devouring hungry light!”

“Crazy bitch!”

“Get off the stage! GET OFF THE STAGE! **GET OFF THE STAGE!** ” The crowd started to chant that as a mob, surging towards the stage en masse.

A few of the Zetas were getting onstage, trying to pull the microphone away from Laura, who was cradling it fast against her chest.

Laura was about to be surrounded by Zetas, and the Warrior of Artemis had no idea which ones might be vampires and which might not be.

_Think fast, Lawrence! How can we get her off the stage?_

“No! You guys! We need to rally together to stop the Dean!”

Kira put a hot house tomato in Danny’s hand.

“Jessie says you have the best throwing arm.”

Danny held the tomato in her hand, judged the distance as she closed the distance, praying to Artemis that her aim would be true. As the tomato left her hand, she knew she had thrown it perfectly, if a bit too hard and fast.

Other Sisters picked up on it and threw whatever empty soda cans, half-eaten sandwiches, and any other lightweight trash they could find.

Laura wiped crushed tomato off of her face, eyes locking onto the tallest redhead of the Summer Society. Her eyes were etched with shock and betrayal as she _finally_ stepped off from the stage, but some of the Zetas were still following her.

_Crap._

“Hey Laura!” Larry the Zeta called out, surprised to see his fellow brothers fall in behind him, “where’s our Bros Will and Kirsch? Last we heard, they were going to your place.”

Huntress Roman read the situation fast enough to stall as the Summers began to converge on the opposite side of the stage.

“More like where’s Elsie? She was _literally_ in your bed with _your girl_ Carmilla after she was reported missing?!”

The Zetas were also forming up; angry, drunk, and looking for a reason to fight.

As Danny and the Recruits finally made it to the group, Mel did a fast headcount and pulled out one of the grenades from her Sage Control launcher.

“We’re missing Sisters, Huntress.”

Larry tried to look intimidating but had one of his bros tell him the same thing.

Laura, panicked and covered in various food remnants, ran off as soon as she noticed a short with the band’s equipment had started a small fire on the stage.

_One more thing to worry about, dammit..._

Chloe and Jessie were the first to break ranks, running into the commotion in the crowd as students began to panic and disperse as Kira’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle…

_...and Sarah was fang-deep in it._


	15. Scorpion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey so uh... this got away from me and the NEXT chapter will be the finale.

_**[Flashback: One Year Ago]** _

Kirsten, as Huntress, had the duty to appoint a replacement Second Huntress for the chapter. Jia was, by all account, the best person for the job.

They just happened to also be a werewolf.

Which made the first meeting of the Officers and the Warriors of Artemis all the more tenuous, particularly as Callis and Lawrence were glaring daggers at each other.

“Welcome, Sisters, to our first official meeting this year. I want to welcome new Warriors of Artemis Mel Callis and Danny Lawrence.”

There was light applause at that; it was unusual for anyone to go straight from Recruit to Warrior status, but they had earned the points and qualified on the Archery Range to stand among juniors and seniors while only being in their sophomore year.

“Next point of business is Jamie’s resignation from the Sisterhood. With his leaving-”

“-her” Mel corrected.

Kirsten shot her a glare that silenced the room.

“Jamie has requested that we use male pronouns for him. I’m respecting _his_ decision.” Kirsten waited for any remarks with a pointed look.

None came.

“And as Huntress of the Silas Chapter of the Summer Society, I’m appointing Jia as my Second.”

More polite applause filled the room, except that Callis kept her arms crossed defiantly. Danny rolled her eyes at Mel’s childish behavior.

Jia nodded, clearing their throat.

“Thank you; I intend to uphold the traditions and expectations of this office, and, absent full moons, you’re welcome to come talk to me.”

Kirsten cleared her throat, almost in apology.

“Would you tell the story, please?”

Jia nodded in understanding.

“When I first applied, I thought being a werewolf would disqualify me. Apparently, that’s not the case, as a different chapter dealt with a Warrior of Artemis getting infected and turned during the school year.

“As the organization prides itself in its diversity, it also has a responsibility to protect the sisters. It’s called the _Scorpion Protocol_ ; based on an old folk legend about the fox and the scorpion.”

Danny spoke up. “Fox? I thought it was a frog?”

Jia gave a tiny nod in her direction. “Fox, frog, even tortoise… there are different versions. The gist is this: A scorpion was along the edge of a river, wondering how to cross to the other side. Suddenly he sees a fox, and asks the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox refuses, saying that he were to do that, the scorpion would sting him, and he’d drown.

“The scorpion assured the fox that if he did that, they both would drown. The fox thought it over and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on the fox’s back, who began to swim across the river. But halfway there, the scorpion stung the fox. As the fox started to die, he turned to the scorpion and asked why he did it, since now both of them will drown.

“ _‘I couldn't help it’,_ said the scorpion. _‘It's my nature.’_ ”

Huntress Kirsten resumed somberly.

“When you’re a sorority full of armed college students protecting humankind from the dangers seen and unforeseen, there’s a big chance that one of us might get compelled by some dark magic or preternatural condition to kill everyone. Scorpion Protocol is known only to the Warriors of Artemis and the Officers; only to be used in cases where one of our own becomes a direct threat to the Sisterhood.

“National decided, and we all agree, that we shouldn’t scare the recruits or the sisters with this very real possibility. In fact, we’ve taken great efforts in harm reduction here; letting Jia and our sister Watts go out to the Dark Forest for the three nights of every full moon. Together they can run amok there, hunt, and stay away from attacking humans. Courtesy of a repelling spell that Jia taught me.

“Once I graduate, I’m confident that our recruit Jessie will make Warrior status and continue being the Chapter’s Mage.”

Mel looked stricken at that.

“You’re telling us that there’s a protocol in place to kill one of our own?”

Jia nodded.

“The needs of the many…”

* * *

Chloe and Jessie were the first to break ranks and run into the commotion in the crowd as students began to panic and disperse as Kira’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle…

_...and Sarah was fang-deep in it._

**“SCORPION!”**

Danny didn't even think before she had her desert eagle out in a two-hand grip, plugging away at her former Summer Society sister, aiming for Sarah’s center-of-mass through Kira’s lifeless corpse.

She pulled her trigger over and over as she shuffled in a half crouch to outflank Sarah on the left, letting her sisters fire incendiary arrows from their position. The slide locked back on the Desert Eagle, making Danny swap out the empty magazine for the one that Kira prepared.

_Kira is dead._

Danny didn’t have time to dwell on that as Sarah threw Kira’s tomahawk with vampire speed and strength, deflected only by quick thinking by Jessie conjuring a red shield with her dagger, followed by a violent jab forward as a silvery bolt of light was shot back at the traitorous sister.

The Summers were getting pinned between the Zetas on the left and the vampire in front of them, advancing to their right. Chloe’s arrows were magically lit as she and Jessie advanced on Sarah, attacking the vampire from the opposite direction Danny was at.

The stage was on fire, the Zetas had their tridents out as they got into a phalanx formation, complete with shields in the front. Danny couldn’t focus on the battle going on in two fronts, and was glad to hear Huntress Roman’s voice boom over the battlefield as she took command.

“Warriors, target Sarah. Sisters and Recruits, defend our rear flank from the Zetas! BY ARTEMIS!”

**_“BY ARTEMIS!”_ **

Sarah got closer to Danny, making her swap from the Desert Eagle to her sword and dagger, ready to parry whatever attack came from the vamp. Danny’s gunshots had smoked in the center of Sarah’s mass as the vampire was working at expelling the silver bullets.

The vampire threw a right hook, which Danny parried with the dagger, stepping into the attack and punching the vampire square in the face with the extended cross guard that protected her right hand. The force, not to mention the sheer guts, to punch the vampire at close range made Sarah stumble back in surprise as Chloe’s burning arrow penetrated through the chest, inches away from her heart.

“Danny! Behind you!” A voice yelled, making Danny instinctively pivot and drop to her right knee to see what was behind her.

A Zeta had snuck behind her, trident thrust right where her chest had been and instead just barely missed her scalp, muscle memory impaling him in the gut with an upward thrust of the falchion while the parrying dagger went up under his chin and through his head.

Danny quickly pulled both blades out, kicked him back with her left foot, and used the falchion to decapitate him with a clean slash as she only then began to wonder if he had been human or a vampire.

As the body and head fell and turned to ash, Danny felt slightly relieved as she turned back to face Sarah, who was turning into smoke and the silver bullets embedded in her were falling to the ground effortlessly.

As the smoke resolidified into a dark grey cougar, Huntress Watts handed off her weapon and shifted into her wolf shape, bloodlust taking her over for revenge.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Roman’s voice boomed over the field, which surprised and even stopped the skirmish between the Zetas and the Recruits.

Levi, sporting her signature Batman war paint and wielding her pair of Ruger LC9’s asked the question that all the Warriors were thinking.

“I thought the black leopard had attacked Watts, so who was that?”

Chloe had her compound bow at the low ready, arrow already nocked into place. “The actual creature that attacked her… the scent disappeared when she turned back into a human shape. I couldn’t smell a difference between vampire and human.”

Mel shrugged at that, loading the grenade into her launcher.

“Well you’re only a carrier for lycanthropy so maybe your nose isn’t perfect.”

As Chloe glared back at her, her nose and ears perked up at something the rest of us couldn’t notice. “INCOMING!”

Cera Roman sheathed the sword and took up the Ceremonial Bow, arrow automatically lighting itself on fire as she put it on the string.

“SUMMERS ARCHERS! On my order, _NOCK!_ ”

The entirety of the Summer Society that had bows followed orders as a single unit, putting arrows on their bowstrings.

_“LIGHT!”_

Jessie made a circular motion with her dagger, magically lighting all of the arrows of her sisters, making some of the recruits gasp in surprise.

The werewolf chased the cougar back towards the Summers, fangs deep in her back before getting thrown off as Sarah shifted into smoke before re-forming into the feline shape.   
  
_“DRAW!”_

The dozen-plus bows were pulled back as Danny and all of the Warriors with firearms took aim at the traitor before them, including Mel with the grenade launcher. Watts, as a werewolf, took a savage swipe at the cougar before jumping back and out of the line of fire.

**_“LOOSE!”_ **

The air boomed with gunshots, flaming arrows, and an incendiary grenade all landing directly on Sarah, proving to be just enough overkill as she burned even after attempting to shift into smoke, collapsing as a charred human form.

Even after all that, the vampire wearily attempted to crawl but seemed too exhausted from the fight.

**_“NOCK AND HOLD!”_ **

While the archers prepared a second volley, Roman had them hold as Chloe approached Sarah with her machete out, hacking directly at the neck to behead the vampire before she can get up and do more harm.

_“That was for Kira!”_

Larry stepped forward, seeming to be the ad-hoc leader for the Zetas, as his trident seemed to be gold and was a foot longer.

“Okay, so you lot turn into animals and my Vice-President just turned to dust. What the fuck is going on?”

Huntress Roman took stock of the situation, pointing the Summer Society sword towards him before raising it slightly to show she meant no harm.

“Truce?”

Larry did a similar maneuver, nodding in agreement.

“Truce… for now.”

“Laura was right; the Dean had vampires working for her and infiltrated our groups. The Alchemy Club would have been decimated it if weren’t for Danny, Jessie, Sam, and Kira.”

As if on cue, Alan, Alisha, and a dozen Alchemy Club recruits appeared out of thin air. Alan had his tanbō while Alisha carried an elven staff and had a short sword attached at her hip. Even her ears seemed more pointed as she stood there in a green and grey cloak over an unmistakable leather armor bodice. Alan was wearing a Kimono that seemed to blend his Irish roots into something an 18th century Rōnin soldier might wear, excluding the MP5 slung on his back.

The alchemist recruits were all in similar alchemist robes, armed with pouches of smoldering purple fungus and steely looks of determination.

“We’ve had no luck reviving the communications network, and Christoph didn’t survive our... _interrogation_ methods.” Alisha said, sneering in frustration.

“We owe the Dean a world of pain,” Alan added, “how can we help?”

* * *

It felt odd to see the Alchemy Club and the Zetas staging in the front yard of the Summer Society House, but the wards made by Jessie were reinforced by Alisa and Alan to keep out anyone who meant harm to the living.

Alisha and Cera Roman seemed to take the lead on disseminating information on the Dean’s nefarious plan as Zeta Omega Mu was simply a fraternity that liked tridents.

_Or Will and his vampire accomplices successfully infiltrated and neutralized the group from starting any resistance._

“According to Laura’s videos,” Huntress Roman began, “we’re dealing with an Elder God named Lophiiformes. In order to keep it slumbering, it needs to eat five sacrifices every twenty years. Apparently our Dean likes sacrificing young women because she’s an ironic feminist or something.”

Alan nodded at that. “And that’s where the kidnappings and cerebrospinal fluid comes in. She has vampire minions kidnap the girls, infect them with a parasite at the back of the brain stem that crosses the blood-brain barrier and goes all the way down the spinal cord, making them effectively ‘party girls’. Gotta thank LaFontaine for collecting and testing the samples.” She paused for a second. “You know, if they survive and become coherent enough to understand the science.”

Alisha continued, grateful to share what she figured out.

“LaFontaine’s parasitic incubation rate was much faster than other girls, which tells us that it’s less biological and more preternatural. Meaning that normal antibiotics won’t flush it out as well, and I’m communing with Gaia in order to formulate something that will work.”

Larry scrunched his face at that in confusion.

“Gaia?”

“Essentially ‘Mother Nature’, in a way. Her goal is to preserve the cycle of life here on Earth, which means opposing the Elder Gods that do not belong in this realm.”

“Lophi is an _Elder God?_ We’re up against a sleeping **god** ?” Roman’s eyes were wide in shock. _“Artemis protect us.”_

Larry gulped, taking in the information.

“So the Dean gets the girls high, feed them to the Lophi thing, and it gets a contact high and stays asleep for 20 years? That’s messed up.”

Watts winced as she asked the uncomfortable question that we were all trying to avoid.

“As messed up as it is to have five people sacrificed every twenty years to keep Lophi asleep, what’s the worst that can happen if he wakes up?”

Danny’s phone beeped, making her gasp as she saw the text from Laura.

**_Trapped in basement of old chapel. Come quick. Bring stakes._ **

Oh no. _No no nononoo…_

Just a few hours ago, Danny had pegged Laura with a tomato on stage, earning her a look that poured an extra layer of concrete on any dead and buried hopes that they could be together.

 _This has to be a joke…_ **_or a trap._**

Danny couldn’t even be certain if Laura actually sent this message; she may have lost her phone when she was on stage and this is a lure by the Dean’s minions to get revenge on her for killing the vamps.

She had to know and be certain. Danny had to go check on Laura, one last time.

 _Dammit_.


	16. Battle of Silas / Epilogue

This had to be a joke.

_There was no way Laura got herself captured by the Dean._

Danny kept glancing at her phone, expecting a ‘Got you!’ message from her, or something saying that she’s just kidding, because while the Sisters have sworn to protect humankind, it didn’t mean that _Laura_ had to be in the crosshairs.

Again.

Danny, as always, found the door unlocked as she could hear Carmilla cussing… and strangely enough showing concern for her roommate.

“Goddamnit. Of all the imbecilic, idiot, suicidal… you just had to go and get yourself eaten. Oh, God, you’re somewhere getting eaten.”

“ **Where the hell is Laura?** Because this _isn’t funny_.”

Carmilla turned to face her, apprehension etched on her face.

“What?”

“I just got a text _‘Trapped in basement of old chapel. Come quick. Bring stakes._ ’“

“The Dudley Chapel... The Lustig Building! They’re under the Lustig Building!”

_The building where the ley lines go all cattywampus?_

“You’re being serious? This isn’t a joke?”

“Only the part that’s happening right now, Xena. Okay. Get down there, rustle up your Brobdingnagian sorority sisters and- and get to the Lustig. Hell, even tell the Zetas that’s where their missing bros are.”

Carmilla begins to leave the room, held back by Danny’s question.

“And where are you going?”

“To do something really stupid.”

Danny notices that the camera is running, and can’t hold back her exasperation.

“Is that thing still running?”

“Yeah; I think we’re supposed to be filming our _soppy heartfelt goodbyes_ or something.”

“Screw that.”

“Good call. See you at the violence.”

As they both exit, Danny starts to send a text to the Huntress but calls out to Carmilla. _‘See you at the violence’ means she’s coming to help._

Carmilla cares about Laura, and wants to help.

“You can turn into smoke, can’t you? Which means that you were never actually restrained in those ropes.”

“Ten points to Gryffindor, Ms. Weasley.”

Danny shook her head at that.

“That means you willingly starved yourself for 9 days… why?”

Carm looked stricken as she was lost in thought.

“Right before your _dimwit squad_ ‘captured me’, Laura only saw me as a monster. Dared me to kill her to prove her right,” Carmilla gulped down the urge to tear up, “After Ell died, I… swore I’d never again harm a girl I loved.”

Carmilla’s words prickled against the Warrior of Artemis, but despite the jealousy she might feel, Danny knew she respected the vampire for that.

“You really do love her, don't you?”

Carmilla nodded, exchanging a look that said so much more in that moment.

“I'm not alone it seems. Love can make you do things you'd never normally do, like threaten to kneecap a romantic rival.”

“-yeah, about that. I wanna apologize-”

“No. Bring your gun; you’re going to need it.”

“Already have it.”

“We’re going to save her.”

Danny nodded, finishing her text as the pair of them split off, ready to go meet their fate.

* * *

Huntress Roman, Larry, and Alisha lead their respective regiments to surround the Lustig Building on all sides. Lawrence was with the Alpha team of the Warriors of Artemis, who would be the first wave entering the building.

The Zetas were to go through the north entryway while the Alchemists had the west. Most of the recruits and sisters of the Summer Society were to secure the south entryway and fortify a fallback position while the Warriors of Artemis breached into the building from the east, what had appeared to be the weakest point due to the doors being scorched black by a certain sister’s proclivity towards incendiary grenades.

“Callis, your work, I presume?” Kirsten asked, pointing to Mel’s handiwork.

Jessie’s dagger glowed dark purple, making her mutter under her breath.

“Yeap, they put some really lethal traps on these doors. We’re going to have to make our own way in. Glad you’re back, Huntress Kirsten,” Jessie nodded, putting away the dagger and pulling out the magnetic chalk. “You and Jia wanna cover my six for a moment?”

The two alumni flanked the mage on either side, P90’s at the low ready as the trio moved to the edge of the building where it was pure brick wall. Jessie saw the security camera and Jia took it out with a throwing knife. Within a minute, all three were back to the rendezvous point with the Warriors of Artemis, fingers crossed that the plan would work.

Blue mushrooms rained down from the skies for two seconds, the signal from the Alchemists that they were in position.

_Showoffs._

Larry, of course, simply texted Second Huntress Watts who passed the message along from the south side that they were ready.

Roman shook off the nervous energy as she put away her phone, invoking the sword to amplify her voice for everyone to hear.

**“Breach.”**

The Warriors of Artemis ducked for cover as a deep whistle grew louder, the conjured meteor strike targeting the alchemical sigils that Alan taught Jessie to use.

“Incoming! Get down!” Roman ordered, holding a Steyr AUG at the ready with silver ammo.

The ground didn’t just shake, it simply ceased to exist for a moment as every Warrior of Artemis fell onto their butts, scrambling to get back up and have their weapons trained at the dense cloud of dust where a solid wall once stood.

“Alpha team!”

Mel launched an incendiary grenade into the breach, charging forward to launch a second grenade as a double-tap strike, hopefully incinerating any vampires that ran forward after the first strike.

“GO!” Mel calls out, slinging the Sage Control on her shoulder and pulling out a pair of Berettas, taking a knee as she waited for the debris to settle a bit more, steeling her nerves against the shrieks of pain as three vampires ran out of the building, attempting to roll on the ground to put out the flames.

Danny had one of the vamps in her sights and put made multiple headshots with the silver ammo before it decomposed to dust, while Sam and Mel plugged away at the other two.

Explosions went off in the distance as the other three teams breached their doorways, and Lawrence hoped that their plan meant that the other teams would suffer minimal casualties.

“Bravo team!” As Roman, Chloe, and Jessie moved forward, the Huntress tossed the sword towards Kirsten, who caught it by the handle in one fluid grip.

“Take good care of it; I’ll expect it back Huntress.” Cera Roman nodded to her predecessor as she gripped the ceremonial bow with a white-knuckle grip.

Kirsten nodded as she lead Jia and Levi into the building, cutting off into a different direction.

“Charlie team, BY ARTEMIS!”

The entire Sisterhood heard Kirsten’s rallying cry and replied in zeal.

**_“BY ARTEMIS!”_ **

Sam lead the fire line, Mel directly behind her and Danny bringing up the rear. When they got to classroom doorways, Sam would pie the doorway with the Spaminator while Mel was at the ready to either pull her back or throw in a fragmentation grenade, whichever Sam signed for.

Danny’s job was to protect their six as they made their way down a hallway, hearing the other two teams doing sweep and clears down the other hallways.

Everything was going to plan until a burst of gunfire to her right put ice in her veins.

_“Hit!”_

_“Bogey sighted! Fuck, it’s fast!”_

_“Turned to smoke and went up the vents!”_

Kirsten used the magical sword to broadcast to the team.

**_“Warriors of Artemis, Stack Up!”_ **

Despite all of their planning, the Warriors of Artemis were still thinking like humans who had to keep solid form.

_Turning to smoke and traveling through the air ducts is just cheating._

Danny, Sam, and Mel were shoulder-to-shoulder to each other, forming a tight triangle as they made their way towards the gunshots.

Danny made a gasp as she saw Chloe sprawled out on the floor, a pool of blood growing way too fast as Jessie was quickly spelling some first-aid on the gunshot in the thigh, trusting Cera Roman to guard the pair of them with Chloe’s Glock 34.

“Vampires.. aren’t supposed to have guns..” Chloe grunted, “I call shenanigans.”

“Save your strength, Chloe,” Roman ordered, gun drawn towards the ceiling, “that bullet was too close to an artery.”

Jessie looked up at the tall redhead.

“Lawrence I need you to help me hold her down.”

Danny complied, taking a knee and looking at the Mage in question.

“Bullet’s out, but I can’t keep the magical tourniquet on and close the wound at the same time, so it’s about to get messy and painful. Hold her down.” Jessie put the ceremonial bow between Chloe’s teeth. “And you… _live_.”

Danny grappled and pinned Chloe’s teeth above her head with one hand as she used all of her weight on the blonde’s chest, cringing as she saw Jessie sit on the uninjured leg and spell away the ruined pant leg before making the dagger glow red-hot and pressing it to the wound.

The smell of burning flesh was muted by the screams of pain that her Sister made, and it felt like an eternity as Lawrence had to restrain her sister, whose eyes seemed to be pleading for the pain to stop.

It was only seconds later than Jessie removed the dagger and wiped away the blood on her jeans, taking her Glock back from Huntress Roman.

“She going to be okay?”

Jessie nodded.

“That’s the plus side of being a carrier of lycanthropy… pretty resilient.”

Chloe’s teeth were bared as an inhuman growl came from her throat.

“Fucking silver burns…” She got up, tested her weight on her feet, and slung her quiver back on as she picked up her compound bow. “Wish I could at least manifest claws so I could rip out it’s undead heart!”

“We good?” Roman asked, glad to see Chloe nod and only slightly limp into formation. “Where’s Charlie team?”

The silence in the building grew deafening, and an eerie feeling crawled over the Sisters.

“Still doing their sweep and clear?”

Jessie’s brow furrowed in thought, eyes widening in realization.

“Fuck, silencing charms!” She cast a spell in the direction that they should be, looking to the dagger for confirmation. “The vamps are ambusing us.”

Roman cursed under her breath.

“Lawrence, you’ve got the longest stride, so take point with Alpha team; we’ll cover you from behind.”

Chloe sneered at the Huntress. “I’m not going to slow us down.”

Cera nodded to her injured teammate.

“Good, let’s go.”

* * *

Danny’s heart was pounding in her chest as she crossed the silencing charm barrier, gunshots and spellfire echoing loudly in the cramped hallway.

Screams of pain pierced through all the din as she recognized the voice, quickly muted in a sickening gurgle that meant Levi was dead.

Mel stacked directly behind Danny as the trio turned the corner, Danny making the signal for shooting instead of throwing a grenade.

There was a small lake of blood and fur where Jia had shifted and been physically torn apart by a pair of vampires, one draining Levi to death while the other tried to slap away Huntress Kirsten’s attacks with the Summer Society Sword.

“DROP!” Danny yelled, training the sights of her Desert Eagle at the center mass of the vampire, inhuman claws slashing at the former President of the Summer Society.

Sam and Mel concentrated their fire on the feeding vampire while Kirsten staggered out of the line of fire, standing shakily with the sword in her right hand, while her left was clamped onto her neck with a white-knuckle grip.

“Immune... silver…” the Huntress rasped, making Danny take a quick glance to see deep crimson flowing down her chest.

The vampire was a few inches shorter than her, a brunette with a pretty, angular face. Her face and hand was stained with blood as she bared fangs in a wicked grin.

It wasn’t until her gun clicked empty that she realized that the vampire had just stood there and taken the bullets without so much as flinching.

“I’m Iliana. You beheaded my lover Jodous,” she snarled, ripping the Summer Society sword out of Kirsten’s hand, shoving her to the ground, “and now **I’m going to kill you**.”

Danny holstered her pistol and unsheathed her sword and parrying dagger.

“Bring it on, _bitch._ ”

Danny kept her left hand up, parrying dagger at the ready to block while her right arm extended the sword and kept the vampire at a safe distance.

The pair of them stepped around each other as the loud boom of the Spaminator proved useless as Iliana barely flinched as the silver shot sprayed across her shoulder and face.

“Aw, crap. Lawrence, we got dark smoke coming in!” Sam shouted, quickly reloading her shotgun’s ammo while Mel stood at her back.

“We’ll cover you; just go full Utena on her!”

Iliana lunged forward, sword in a two-hand grip as the feint was blocked by Danny’s dagger, who stepped forward, thrusting her own sword to attack, only to see the vampire step backwards and away in order to get behind the redhead.

Lawrence knew the move, using her sword to defend her back as she stepped out of Iliana’s range, pivoting on her left foot and having her dagger leading in front of the sword. Her eyes met the vampire’s as she idly wondered if Iliana were trying to bespell her.

“Your little protection spell will only make killing you all the more satisfying!”

Danny caught a blur of motion in her periphery as Mel used her cold-iron kukri to turn a vampire into a pile of ash.

“So you are trying to spell me with your seduction eyes… sorry, sweetheart. Looks like your friends aren’t coming to the rescue.”

Iliana let go of the Summer Society Sword with her left hand, flexing it as her nails grew into sharp talons.

“I don’t need them, I’m one of Mother’s oldest children. We won’t let you stop the sacrifices!”

The Warrior of Artemis felt her blood pressure rise as an eerie calm took over her body. This would just be like sparring against any other opponent with a sword and dagger.

Iliana comes near, Danny parries and moves back, looking to find her opponent’s tell that will telegraph her next move. She blocked with the sword and felt her dagger plunge in between the vampire’s ribs, and Lawrence was quick enough to twist the blade as she pulled it out, bouncing on her toes as the adrenaline coursed through her veins.

It was a heady boost, but only temporary. And it was telling her to turn and run away, to let Mel and Sam shoot and burn her with a grenade.

Iliana’s clawed hand touched the wound, surprised that the blow landed and was freely bleeding.

If Danny thought the vampire was angry before, she was now _thoroughly pissed._

Iliana lunged forward with the sword, fury making her form sloppy as Danny took advantage and jumped forward and to the right, slicing the dagger downward with brutal force to make a clean cut through the wrist.

The piercing shriek of pain, Danny realized, wasn’t her own as she skewered Iliana with both blades, driving the vampire to the ground and standing on the severed hand.

_Dead check. Don’t assume she’s dead._

Releasing her dagger, Danny’s left hand gripped Iliana by the hair, pulling the head up and running the neck along her sword, blade hesitating at the vertebrae. The Warrior of Artemis pushed forward with the sword, tearing the head off and tossing it away as the remains collapsed into ash as she collapsed to her knees, adrenaline spent and body shaking from the fight.

She felt like her legs were lead as she got up, sheathing her blades and taking back the ceremonial sword into her hand.

_Artemis, give me strength._

Danny caught her breath as she saw Sam resort to her custom bow and arrows, muttering about wishing she had more ammunition. Mel looked equally grim as she was now carrying Jia’s P90.

“Kirsten?” She asked, seeing the way-too-pale Huntress slump against the wall, eyes distant as her soul made its journey to the Great Hunting Grounds.

Sam met Danny’s eyes, giving a reassuring look as she nodded down the hallway.

“We’re down Charlie team, but we still have Bravo, the Alchemists, and the Zetas.”

Mel looked around in concern.

“Bravo team was supposed to have our six; what happened?”

“Do we go back?”

“Stick to the plan. Keep searching and find the path to the basement; it should look more like an old chapel there.”

It wasn’t long before they ran into Second Huntress Watts with a squadron of Sisters who refused to stay back as reserves. A few of them were already sporting cuts and bruises, and all of them had that same nervous, thousand-yard stare that told Danny that they all were going to need months of therapy after this.

“The Zetas apparently split up, got lost, and a few of them ran into us instead; that’s when we got ambushed by three of them at once. They kept turning into smoke...”

Danny looked at the group.

“So where are they?”

The horrified looks on their faces said it all.

“What’s the opposite of ‘decimate’? You know, where it’s 90% casualties instead of just ten?” Hailey asked, a recruit looking way too young to be armed with a shield and morningstar.

That’s when the injuries and the PTSD looks made sense; they weren’t in a fight, but under siege. _They hadn’t been trained to deal with this level of trauma._

The recruits looked to Danny and Mel for direction, like children asking their parent to check under the bed one more time to be sure there were no monsters there. Except that there was a monster, a very real and dangerous monster, and it was their job to go down there and stop it.

Watt’s cell phone beeped, making her check the message and read it twice.

“Lawrence?” She nodded to the ceremonial sword. “I take it Charlie team didn’t make it?”

Danny shook her head, handing the sword over.

Second Huntress Watts nodded sadly as she faced Sam.

“You’re Second Huntress now. Let’s end this.” She raised the sword as her voice broke. “ _By Artemis._ ”

_Cera Roman?_

“By Artemis.” was the subdued reply as Huntress Becca Watts lead the rest of the Summer Society deeper into the building, through a hidden door that had been blown open by Alchemy.

* * *

It was chaos as the Sisters made their way down the stairs, the air turning cold and moldy as the walls looked like something time had forgotten; made of hand-made bricks at least two hundred years ago.

Alan, Chloe, and Jessie were facing off against three vampires who were some sort of mystical pyromaniacs, throwing things and setting them on fire mid-flight towards the Mage and the Druid.

Jessie was deflecting the spells and burning ordinance, Alan was on offense, and Chloe had been firing flaming arrows back at them.

Alisha was every bit of Gandalf the Grey as she used both sword and staff to defend the Alchemist recruits, who were lobbing the purple fungus with lethal accuracy. Whenever one of the smoldering purple mushrooms hit something, it seemed to swallow up a chunk of the matter like tiny temporary black holes.

Beyond that was a pit, where the Dean stood with a half-dozen students, including Kirsch, Elsie, and Betty, swaying dreamily as one coreographed unit.

_Laura wasn’t there, though._

The Dean’s eyes glowed amber with rage as she turned upon them, chastising them like errant school children.

**_“YOU MEDDLING INFANTS! I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!”_ **

Dean Morgan looked around the room, found the fuse box, and threw a black ball of energy towards it that exploded darkly, killing the power and plunging the basement into complete darkness.

The spellfire between Alan and the rest of Bravo Team, along with the vampires they were fighting, was the only dim light that illuminated the room.

“The vamps can turn to smoke, so be ready!” Lawrence called out, going shoulder to shoulder with a fellow sister.

“Stack up!”

Alisha taps the bottom of her staff to the ground, making runes light up before tossing it towards Lawrence.

“Protect your warriors, _fëa inwis!_ ”

Danny caught the staff, looked to find Elise, and tossed it on to her. The Sister was fluid as she stepped towards a coalescing cloud of smoke and spun the staff to slice through the now-formed vampire, instantly turning it to dust.

Alisha, equipped with only the sword, seemed to grow more fierce as she fought and staved off a vampire who had been coming for the Alchemist recruits as she called out to Alan to do a light spell. However, the trio were pinned down by the pair of vampires and had escalated their attacks to keep them on the defense.

Smoke trails solidified at the far left flank of the Summers as Danny found herself in another sword fight with yet another silver-resistant vampire, the lack of gunshots now worrying her that the tide wasn’t in their favor.

_They had run out of ammo._

Huntress Watts must have noticed this as well, as she used the sword to magnify her voice again.

“HAND-TO-HAND! TO THE LAST!”

The Recruits and Sisters charged forward, morningstars, baseball bats, and knives out and defending each other as the vampires proved to be inhumanely fast but still unable to break the line.

A muffled chant began to grow louder as the Zetas poured in, tridents at the ready as the fraternity spilled in, attacking the vampires from the right flank yelling “PIZZA OR DEATH!”

Larry actually pierced one of the vampires through the back, surprising the pair of them as Hailey pulled out the wooden hairstick in the back of her head to stake the vampire to dust.

One by one, the vampires were getting overwhelmed in the kill zone made between the Summers and the Zetas, leaving Danny, Mel, and Alisha to hack them to pieces.

“OH MY GOD! We got them on the ropes!”

Danny’s head turned at the sound of Laura’s voice, seeing her with Samantha, Perry, and LaFontaine on the other end of the massive room.

Recruit Samantha gave Lawrence a pointed nod as she was single-handedly between them and the Dean, stumbling as the earth itself began to shake, disrupting the fight as a blinding light washed over the entire room like some surreal type of sunrise.

“Hold your position!” Alan shouted, but it was no good as the Light from the pit seemed to call to everyone, like the warmth of the sun on a chilly spring morning.

The Dean and her vampires seemed immune to the call of the Light, which made Danny pause and wonder if it were a trap.

_Of course it’s a trap! It’s Lophii, the Hungry Light!_

“SAMANTHA! STOP LAURA!” Lawrence yelled to no avail, terror flooding her veins as the massive black panther pounced in, knocking Samantha back and nipping Laura by her neck to pull her back.

As the massive black cat shifted into smoke, Danny realized that it was the vampire who had attacked Sarah before any of the Summer Society knew she was one of the Dean’s spies.

It was Carmilla.

_Carmilla was on our side._

The Light from the pit was muted as Carmilla held a sword, something otherworldly as it seemed to suck the light in similar to the Alchemist’s weaponized purple fungus.

It was enough to keep the rest of the humans from willingly walking into the pit to their own deaths, making the Dean scream and transform into a cloud of shadowy crows, attacking the students with the flock of claws and beaks pecking away until Carmilla uses her pyromancy to force the crows out of the air and to resolidify as the Dean.

Without flinching, Carmilla punches her mother in the face with the sword hilt, knocking her backwards into the pit, leaning over to see if the Dean fell to her death.

Danny approaches the edge, heart pounding as Laura scrambled to find a moderately large stone.

The Dean, hanging by her inhuman claws halfway down the pit, realized that she was unable to transform back into her crow form and lashed out at the students.

“You fools! You don’t know what you’ve done, you’ll regret this! If you thought this was misery, you’ve seen NOTHING yet! Zombies will rise to eat your livers, Ghouls will shamble about during witching hour, and-”

Laura cut the Dean off, foot resting on a large stone teetering precariously on the edge, about to fall down onto the Dean.

“Hey, sorry, the students of Silas University would like a new Dean because (A) you’re a callous evil witch… yep, that one’s it. A. Retirement proceedings have begun, and uh, the only action required on your part is to die!” Laura shouted, pushing the small boulder off the edge to hit the Dean, knocking her loose of the ledge and further into the pit, where the light was too bright to see what happened.

The Light grew less bright as shapes began to form all among the students and the vampires alike. Each piece of light solidified into former students of Silas, making Carmilla choke up as her eyes rested upon what must have been a familiar face.

Tracks of blood ran down her cheeks as the Vampire strangled out a single syllable.

“Ell.”

The ghostly apparition of Ell reached out to Carmilla, grief and pain visible on all of the victims of Lophii as they all seemed to beg for the same thing: release.

Samantha was at Danny's side, holding her hand in need of reassurance as the body count of centuries flooded the room with ghosts.

Carmilla looked to Laura, giving her the classic Carmilla smirk.

“Y’know, I really am starting to hate this _heroic vampire_ crap.” Laura’s face went from confused to horrified as she saw the woman she loved jump down into the Hungry Light, sword in hand, falling and falling until the light spluttered out and the ghosts screamed as they began to dissipate.

 **_“CARMILLA!”_ ** Laura screamed, held back by Perry and LaFontaine.

Danny stood there in shock, surprised at the vampire’s self-sacrifice to kill Lophii once and for all.

As the large room fell into darkness, Alan did some sort of alchemy that caused glowing puff balls to fill the air, and the fight was back on with the remaining vampires.

“Samantha, save our Sister!” As soon as Danny gave the order, there was a vampire flunkie attempting to grab and throw Elsie into the pit.

A dazed but coherent Kirsch threw fists at the male vamp to protect the others around him, getting his arm grappled and twisted in such a way that was about to break it. Danny’s instincts took over as her dagger went through the vampire’s back, piercing the heart and wrenching him away from the others as she swung her sword and decapitated him in one clean strike, collapsing into dust as the body hit the ground.

“Thanks, bro!” Kirsch replied as he helped guide the others to safety, doing a double take to realize it was Danny who saved him. “Uh… honorary bro!”

Samantha, Kirsch, and Danny defended Laura, LaFontaine, Perry, and the other kidnapped students as the fighting wound down and the vampires fled in wisps of smoke.

Sam, Alan, and Larry had taken to doing triage while Alisha and Jessie were doing whatever they could to treat the injured. Of the 30 Zetas who had come to fight, there were only a dozen left. The Alchemy Club suffered similar casualties, as did the Summer Society.

Danny’s face fell as she saw Mel cradling and rocking Chloe’s limp body.

“I’m so sorry baby, I should have stood closer to you. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Samantha let out a shriek of fear as she ran over to check on Hailey, gasping and laughing on the verge of hysteria as she realized that her friend had indeed survived.

“Holy crap don’t scare me like that ever again!”

Danny smiled at the exchange, glad to see at least some happiness come out of everything.

Lawrence watched Watts and Sam huddle up with the rest of the Summer Society, automatically promoting all recruits to full Sister status.

It felt like everyone had a place to be now, except her.

Even Kirsch was escorting Laura back to her dorm room, along with Betty, Elsie, and a few others he couldn’t recognize.

But it was the empty, hollow look in Laura’s eyes that hit Danny the hardest. She was mourning the death of Carmilla, who died to protect the school.

Danny couldn’t help but recognize that she felt the same way about having lost Laura, even though she’s still alive and within reach.

_But you can’t really compete with the dead._

For not the first time this year, Danny didn’t feel like she had a home to go to. She’d spent so much time away from the Summer Society that it felt invasive to be near her sisters who were mourning their losses, but she also felt out of place near Laura, who was nearly catatonic with grief.

It took an invite from LaFontaine to make her realize that home is the place that cannot turn you away, and right now that’s exactly what she needed.

She needed to know where she belonged in the world.

* * *

Laura sat up in her bed, with Kirsch sitting at the foot. Betty was sitting on the stool in the back of the room, with LaFontaine beside her. Elsie and Natalie hugged their knees as they sat on Carmilla’s bed. Perry was next to Kirsch, leaving Danny way too close to Laura.

Danny hit record as she made her way towards the camera, feeling awkward for taking over Laura’s video project thing.

“So, Laura’s kinda having a rough time right now.” She didn’t know what else to say. “So…”

She faced Perry, hoping she’d have something to contribute.

Perry put on a polite smile as she recapped what had  happened to them since the last video.

“So, Laura and I followed LaFontaine across campus to the Lustig Building, and then… down through the basement into a series of caves.”

LaFontaine smiled at their life-long friend.

“I still cannot believe you used me as a human homing beacon.”

Perry fretted at that.

“I know, it’s just… we were getting desperate and then-”

LaFontaine shook their head, wanting to kiss her.

“No, no, no, no. That was hardcore. _We do not apologize for the hardcore._ ”

“I missed you, weirdo.”

“Control freak.”

The pair of them shared a prolonged look that should, in any other situation, have wound up with kissing and fireworks.

“Um, right, so, then, uh, everyone was there. Um, the vampires, the Dean, uh, Kirsch and all the rest, and they were standing at the lip of this enormous chasm with their backs to us, so we rushed them, which was a bad idea. But I did manage to stake that one guy, Will?” Perry looked to Kirsch. “Oh, sorry sweetie.”

Kirsch shrugged morosely.

“It’s okay. I mean, he kinda had it coming.”

“But then, the rest of the vampires caught us and they threw Laura and I in an old broom closet to eat later.”

Danny looked to the camera and continued.

“You know the next part. They forgot to take away Laura’s phone, which… apparently has really great reception. So, I get a text, and, with… a little convincing, I rustle up the cavalry. A phalanx of sisters, 40-odd Zetas, armed with their traditional tridents, and the Alchemy Club. And, so, we free Laura and Perry and we rush the vampire line. And we totally had them on the ropes when this rumbling started. And, from the bottom of the pit, you could see this light rising. And- and it was like-”

Danny didn’t know how to put it into words.

Laura spoke up, her voice feeling feeble and distant as if it weren’t used in over a year.

“Like the sun coming up underground, and you’re transfixed by the brightness. Everybody started walking right towards it, cause what can you do but give yourself over to this light? Which was the moment this huge cat grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me away from the edge. And then it shrank and shifted, and there was Carmilla, _with a sword._ A sword like a hollow in reality, eating light.”

Danny continued the story, seeing how much it affected Laura to even say her name.

“And when the Dean saw Carmilla, she screamed and came at us in this swarm of shadows like crows scratching and clawing. And they fought like that until the Dean transformed into a woman again, at which point Carmilla decks her in the face with the sword hilt and she falls into the pit.”

Laura found a reserve of inner strength apparently.

“But it was too late. _The light was everywhere._ You could see these figures in it, reaching out for you. And I think Ell was… was maybe reaching out for Carmilla, and Carmilla was crying, cause in all this time she’d never been able to see her. But then Carmilla turned to me and said _‘y’know, I really am starting to hate this heroic vampire crap’._..”

Laura, Perry, LaFontaine, and Kirsch chuckle softly at that. Laura continued, not because she wanted to, but because she had to.

“And then she leapt. Drove the sword right into the heart of the light and the light shook and sputtered like it was alive... and the ghosts screamed. And they all fell together into the darkness.”

LaFontaine contributed what they had noticed.

“Once the light was out, I guess the brain parasites died because everyone seemed to wake up, more or less.”

Natalie shivered at the gaps in her memory.

“I was arriving at the wine and cheese and that’s it. I don’t even remember if I got any wine.”

Betty, of course, was a whole other story.

“I was on a campus tour; I didn’t even wanna go to this school!”

Perry continued on.

“But, we were all still stuck in an almost completely dark underground cavern with a gang of vampires. Except, it wasn’t totally dark, because all over the wall and, um, in the air were these beautiful glowing puffballs, courtesy of the Alchemy Club.”

Kirsch nodded, grinning at the memory.

“Yeah, it was like, having a bar fight in black light. And this other vamp tried to break my arm and Psycho Society here saved my bacon.”

Danny faced the camera, trying to downplay her actions.

“That was accidental.”

“Hey, even if, you save a Zeta’s life, you become an honorary Zeta. You get a trident and everything.” Danny smiled at him and took the compliment for what it was. “And, um, you know, it’d be kinda cool if you would… well, when the chips are down, you’re kinda like a bro. Um… and I could sorta use one.”

Danny’s heart went out to the stray Hufflepuff puppy, who must have felt as out of his element with the Zetas as she did with the Summer Society.

Perry looked back at the camera, breaking the moment between the two tallest people in the room.

“Well, finally, all the vampires surrendered. Except for Carmilla’s mom, who was fifty feet down the cliff face clinging on by her fingernails.”

Danny interjected at that, remembering the look on her face.

“Oh, and she was doing the whole _‘you fools, you don’t know what you’ve done, you’ll regret this, zombies will eat your liver, blah blah blah blah’_...”

Kirsch pitched in, feeling more at home here than before.

“Yeah, and then Laura’s like ‘Hey, sorry, the students of Silas University would like a new Dean because (A) you’re a callous evil witch… Yep, that one’s it.  A’... and then Laura goes and pushes this rock that’s been teetering on the edge, and _bam!_ Done with the Dean.”

LaFontaine faced the camera, glad to contribute as well.

“Even better than that, now that the _ancient demonic brain lantern_ is off, people are finally coming around, realizing they _probably_ should have been upset about going to a school that serves eyeballs in the cafeteria, has safety protocols for escaped cacodemons, and where mortal combat is a _prerequisite for tenure._ The administration is finally gonna have to listen to my long, long list of health….” Perry touches their arm knowingly. “Yeah… sorry, Laura.”

Laura nodded slightly.

“It’s okay.”

Perry tried to cheer her up.

“Laura, you did it. You saved Betty. You saved almost everyone.”

Laura sighed sadly at that.

“Yeah. Almost everyone.”

* * *

_**Epilogue** _

Danny’s phone rings as she’s at the archery range with Samantha and Hailey, helping them qualify for Warrior status for the next Adonis Hunt. She’s surprised to see it’s Kirsch, and somewhat worried that his ‘you’re kinda like a bro’ comment meant that she’d get outed as transgender.

The ground rumbled, a type of aftershock that Alan and Jessie were investigating but getting nowhere.

Samantha shot fearful eyes to Danny, still recovering from the events from the Lustig incident.

“When will things get back to normal?”

Hailey clasped her Sister’s shoulder in a comforting way, putting on a false show of bravery that almost convinced Lawrence as well.

“This is normal for Silas. And we’re here to defend humankind.”

Danny answered the call, stepping away from the firing line.

“What’s up Kirsch?”

By the time Danny got to the basement of the Lustig building, the Zetas had already lowered Larry into the pit courtesy of the mountain climbing wall equipment that Kirsch had thought to steal from the Student Rec Center.

“No pulse, no breathing… she’s dead, bro. Still want me to help bring her out?” Larry asked, anchoring himself with a piton at the edge of the pit.

Danny called down to him.

“All of the vampires we killed turned to dust, right? Maybe Carmilla is just unconscious and maybe the Alchemists can help?”

Kirsch shook his head sadly.

“I called them; they only channel energy of the living and of nature. Carm would need, like, a necromancer or something.”

It took a few minutes, but Larry gave the signal for Kirsch to run the winch system, slowly pulling her romantic rival’s body from the pit that threatened to kill everyone.

As the body arrived, Kirsch and Danny pulled Carmilla to safety before unclipping the harness, letting it go back down to grab Larry.

Perry, of course, decided to check Carmilla’s vital signs just to confirm.

“I guess we should take her to Student Health Services…”

The Warrior of Artemis disagreed with a terse nod.

“Let’s take her to Laura. She’s got those books we stole from the library; maybe we can find something in there.”

Perry looked to Danny uncertainly.

“Are you sure?”

Danny picked Carmilla up and carried her in her arms.

“Yeah,” she replied with a grunt of exertion, “I feel like I owe her for trying to save us from Sarah.”

As they made their way back to Laura’s room, Perry helped keep doors open and lead the way until they got to the dorm floor.

“Danny, I’m going to go on ahead and try to, uh, prepare her-”

Danny huffed out a heavy breath, having climbed two flights of stairs.

“Yeah, whatever, just wish there were an elevator here.”

Danny counted the steps until she could put down the not-so-light vampire, and didn’t wait for Perry to be done talking.

“-Kirsch and some of his Zeta bros were, um, throwing cherry bombs into the big pit under the Lustig.  And, um, they found, um…”

Danny makes her way in, turning and puts Carmilla down on the nearest bed.

“Okay, sorry, Easy Bake, she’s heavier than she looks.”

Laura notices and immediately runs over to her, and it doesn’t hurt Danny’s feelings like she thought it might.

“Carm!”

“Okay. So, we think she’s… I mean, she seems dead, but she’s a vampire, right?”

“Well, blood! She needs blood!”

Danny felt apprehensive in that moment. Sure, she felt like she owed the vampire, but sharing bodily fluids crosses a line.

Laura practically flew to the fridge, grabbed the ‘soy milk’ container, and poured a bit into her mouth as she plead quietly.

“Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.”

Carmilla reacted to the blood, sitting up slowly as Laura pulled the container away.

“Well, _that_ was a kick.”

Laura hugs her roommate, leaving Danny to feel like a third wheel without so much as a thank you from her. Laura and Carmilla only had eyes for each other, and Danny could only smile sadly at the exchange.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Perry nudges Danny as the pair of them leave the dorm room, closing the door behind them.

“Good call, Danny. And thanks for bringing her back.” Perry sighs, feeling uncomfortable and looks around for an excuse to leave. “I uh, should go check on LaFontaine.”

She let out a breath, accepting the fate that she couldn’t simply ‘win’ Laura for being the heroine. Life doesn’t work out that way, nor should it.

As she made her way back to the Summer Society House, Danny Lawrence hoped that someday she’d find someone who accepted her for who she was, and that just maybe, she could have a girlfriend.

_Or at least survive college._


End file.
